saturation tactics?

In a discussion on the Well, some folks were speculating about the idea of
lots and lots of people & companies applying for those arms export licenses,
on the basis that they *might* sell crypto to a foreigner, or *might* go on
an overseas business trip with their laptop with a crypto program on it,
etc.  This is a great case of an old protest tactic which we used to call
"saturation," which involves lots and lots of people scrupulously obeying an
unfair or controversial law to the point where it starts to swamp the
system.  

Seeme like it might be worth looking into.  Any comments...?

-gg

On Sun, 26 Sep 1993, George A. Gleason wrote:

> 
> In a discussion on the Well, some folks were speculating about the idea of
> lots and lots of people & companies applying for those arms export licenses,
> on the basis that they *might* sell crypto to a foreigner, or *might* go on
> an overseas business trip with their laptop with a crypto program on it,
> etc.  This is a great case of an old protest tactic which we used to call
> "saturation," which involves lots and lots of people scrupulously obeying an
> unfair or controversial law to the point where it starts to swamp the
> system.  
> 
> Seeme like it might be worth looking into.  Any comments...?
 
Sounds expensive at $1,000 per five years per license.  Got any cheaper
ideas, like writing to your Congress person and the President?

> In a discussion on the Well, some folks were speculating about the idea of
> lots and lots of people & companies applying for those arms export licenses,
> on the basis that they *might* sell crypto to a foreigner, or *might* go on
> an overseas business trip with their laptop with a crypto program on it,
> etc.  This is a great case of an old protest tactic which we used to call
> "saturation," which involves lots and lots of people scrupulously obeying an
> unfair or controversial law to the point where it starts to swamp the
> system.  
> 
> Seeme like it might be worth looking into.  Any comments...?
> 
> -gg

Sounds good to me. If anybody out there is knowledgeable enough to write
an initial form letter I'd be thrilled to paraphrase and send one in, as
well as persuading as many of my friends and aquaintences as possible to
respond, as I did with the NIST application for license to use DSA etc...

BTW, I have never received any response or aknowledgement from NIST
regarding my application... Do you think that means that it was accepted? <G>

Happy Hunting, -Chris.
______________________________________________________________________________
Christian Douglas Odhner     | "The NSA can have my secret key when they pry
cdodhner@indirect.com	     | it from my cold, dead, hands... But they shall
pgp 2.3 public key by finger | NEVER have the password it's encrypted with!"
  "If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns." -E. Abbey
My opinions are shareware. For a registered copy, send me 15$ in DigiCash.
  Key fingerprint =  58 62 A2 84 FD 4F 56 38  82 69 6F 08 E4 F1 79 11 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HEy, there was a recent 20/20 story on something like this.  Basically
the inmates in a lot of jails were swamping the legal system with bogus
lawsuits.  Some included were: the right to sacrifice animals due to religion,
the right to get to watch TV, and have a roast duck dinner every night also
due to religion.  Some were even more on the far side.  One guy sued the
jail for now allowing him to run a drug trafficking business out of his cell.

All of these get thrown out, but the cost to the legal system is a few thousand
per case!  This stuff can be >VERY< effective.

Mind you these guys didn't always do whatever they were granted a right to,
they were just badgering the hell out of the legal systems in their states.