tenney@well.sf.ca.us (Glenn S. Tenney) (10/17/90)
mnemonic@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Mike Godwin) writes: >In article <4619@qip.UUCP> john@qip.UUCP (John Moore) writes: >> >>It is true that the Pentagon Papers were not for the public's eyes. However, >>they were not of criminal value (unlike credit card numbers) and did >>bear on major public issues. >Actually, the federal government argued strongly for the position that >the Pentagon Papers should be regarded as stolen *property*. There is NO difference between possesion of the Pentagon Papers and credit card numbers. Possesion of either one of these neither indicates criminal intent nor indicates that a crime has been comitted. The act of acquiring either may involve criminal activity but that is a separate issue. To give an example: I have a file around here that contains GOBS of valid credit card numbers. Some even have correct PINs. Why do I have this file? Easy. I once wrote some software for a client that involved algorithmicly validating credit cards. I required a live file in order to QA the code. As long as I use the file in accordance with my contract, my posession of this file is perfectly legal. By the same token, possessing a copy of a supposedly secret document has no intrinsic criminal value. One may not even know that it is stolen. Criminal activity would involve the act of illegally obtaining the document and/or trying to do something illegal with it such as treason or blackmail. Where our civil liberties get trampled is when the government tries to make the act of possession a crime. That not only leaves one's fate up to a matter of judgement, but it also makes inocent people subject to gestapo tactics such as used in Operation Sundevil. The ultimate crime will be when some SS jerk kills an inocent citizen who is defending his property from the storm troopers, thinking he is under criminal assault. John -- John De Armond, WD4OQC | "The truly ignorant in our society are those people Radiation Systems, Inc. | who would throw away the parts of the Constitution Atlanta, Ga | they find inconvienent." -me Defend the 2nd {emory,uunet}!rsiatl!jgd| with the same fervor as you do the 1st.