Mitch Kapor resigns from company over domestic surveillance system
There's a fascinating NYT article making the rounds, Software Pioneer Quits Board of Groove (also available from the IP list) It's chock-full of food for thought. Summary: Mitch Kapor, millionaire and EFF-founder, resigned from Groove networks as "the company's software was being used by the Pentagon as part of its development of a domestic surveillance system." And more:
The company acknowledged the resignation last week when it announced that it had received $38 million in additional financing. ...
"With the dramatic change of funding availability in the high-tech sector, it's become difficult for companies to turn down the funding opportunities presented by the federal government," said Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. ...
"Computer scientists are going to have the same kinds of battles that physicists did amidst the fallout of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," said Michael Schrage, a senior adviser to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Security Studies Program.
Now, this is not quite so new, as everyone should remember that the Internet originated from a military funding project. (and Al Gore did indeed help its evolution greatly, contrary to a certain fabricated journalistic slam). But what's notable, if not exactly new, is that money is flowing. It's sort of like a flood. Whenever either money or floodwater washes over an area, it's never the same afterwards.
Hmm ... I think I hear the Dark Side calling me ...
By Seth Finkelstein | posted in security | on March 13, 2003 10:56 PM (Infothought permalink) | Followups
