Today's piece of history comes as a sequel of these others posts of mine:
1,
2 and
3.
Governs don't want the public to have access to information and try their best to stop that since ancient times. The most known example is the invention of the printing press, in 1448, as it represented a huge step forward in accessing information and towards freedom. After Gutenberg's invention became public, the govern couldn't limit anymore people's access to information, as the writings, the books and the manuscripts could be translated in different languages and spread among different cultures.
The decentralization started since that year. In 1517, the 95 theses written by Martin Luther were printed in thousands copies and translated in various languages and his words were known by the entire continent. As a consequence for his actions he was excommunicated by the Church. But without him and without the printing press, most likely, the protestant reformation would have been a failure.
Who holds the information holds the power and, in general, the information is held by elites - governs, agencies, law enforcement. Or the Church, as it happened in Luther's case. And they never want the public to access it, because it would mean to lose their power.
Getting back to modern era, but still old times. The times of Cypherpunks. John Gilmore, one of them, had a personal vendetta against NSA. Or maybe I should have written that NSA had a personal vendetta with him? One of the most remarkable victory of the information against oppression was led in 1989 by Gilmore who made public a secret document. The author of the document was working for Xerox and NSA specifically requested Xerox to destroy the document. John Gilmore disagreed with this censorship and posted the document on the Internet. Of course it was quickly downloaded thousands of times, and the war between Gilmore and NSA was started.
In 1992 took place another great battle between John Gilmore and NSA. For obvious reasons (related to censorship of free information), the manuscripts of William Friedman - considered to be the grandfather of cryptography in USA - were classified, although they were written in the times of WWII. Gilmore disagreed again, considering that Friedman's work should be available to anyone interested. So he called NSA in a Court of Law and he based his requests of declassifying the books on a Freedom of Information Act. Of course, NSA avoided to respond to his request, thus everything had to be settled during a trial. Afterwards, he managed to find Friedman's books in a public library. During the trial he was informed that unless he will give the books to the govern, he will be accused of espionage which could lead to 10 years in jail, as he was in the possession of classified materials. NSA didn't stop here. The agency tried to find any other "sensible" materials in various public spaces. Gilmore informed the judge that what he found was already public, since the books were in a public library and at the same time he decided to speak to the press about the entire case. Soon after, the books were printed by
Aegean Park Press.
Gilmore's case became public and from that moment the govern backed-off. The charges were dropped and the manuscripts were declassified. John Gilmore won. People won as well, as
the public information remained in public's hands, as it should have always been.
The fight for freedom of speech, for privacy and for rendering governs as irrelevant started a long time ago. Now it is in our hands.
Translations (in chronological order):
- Română: Guvernele încearcă să limiteze accesul publicului la informație de sute de ani, translation by GazetaBitcoin
- Filipino: [Translation]Pag limita ng gobyerno sa pang publikong impormasyon at pag-hayag, translation by Peanutswar
- Polish: Rządy próbują od wieków ograniczać dostęp społeczeństwa do informacji i wolnośc, translation by cygan
- Pidgin: Governs try to limit de public to access of information & freedom long long time, translation by sokani
- Bengali: শাসকরা যুগ যুগ ধরে তথ্য ও স্বাধীনতায় জনসাধ, translation by Learn Bitcoin
- Indonesian: Pemerintah berupaya membatasi akses masyarakat terhadap informasi dan kebebasan, translation by dansus021
- Russian: Пpaвитeльcтвa пocтoяннo пытaютcя oгpaни, translation by FP91G
- French: Les élites tentent de limiter l'accès à l'info et à la liberté depuis toujours, translation by iwantmyhomepaidwithbtc2
- Urdu: حکمران عمر سے عوام کی معلومات اور آزادی, translation by JunaidAzizi
- German: Der Staat versucht, den Zugang zu Informationen und Freiheit zu beschränken, translation by cygan
