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List:       cryptography
Subject:    Re: Armchair lawyers and customs searchs.
From:       Black Unicorn <unicorn () schloss ! li>
Date:       1998-08-24 19:23:34
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At 02:10 PM 8/24/98 -0500, you wrote:

>I hope there's some way we can continue discussions on the overlap between
>legal issues and computer security issues even though some of us are
>experts in computing while others are experts in law. I know it's
>frustrating to see someone with expertise in one realm do violence to the
>terminology of another.

It's more the impression of authority that armchair lawyers like to leave
which irritates me.

I'm pleased to discuss these issues and I think the fact that people in the
technical realm are more and more interested in the legal and policy realm
is "A Good Thing"(tm).

If I come off as a bastard when it comes to legal corrections on occasion
its because it has become such a commonplace thing for someone with no
legal background at all to make the wildest assertions out of hand without
even the foggiest basis in fact and feel completely justified, even wronged
if corrected.  That sort of thing is dangerous.  People tend to rely on
legalese sounding advice regardless of the source.  It's the kind of thing
that perpetuates myths like "if you send a check for a dollar with a memo
'paid in full' written on it, and they cash it, your debt is satisfied" or
"if your roommate in college dies you get an automatic 4.0 for the
semester" or my personal favorite "if you are in a foreign embassy you are
on foreign soil."  This is why I don't make comments on e.g. the latest
'vulnerability' in SSL.

>Rick.
>smith@securecomputing.com

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