Computers, Freedom & Privacy Conference

Reason is proud to once again be a media sponsor of the 15th annual Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference, which will be held from April 12-15 in Seattle, Washington. This year's theme is Panopticon.

For more details on what USA Today has called the "most important computer conference you've never heard of," go here.

Comments

[WSDave]

Nick,

Just got my subscriber edition of CHOICE a few days ago and I love it. Any chance you'll be at this event to sign my copy?

WSDave

[Nick Gillespie]

Alas, I won't be in attendance, though someone else from Reason may be.

[Rick Barton]

Hey, I went to the CFP site and it installed spyware on my computer!

Joke! Just a joke. This sounds like an interesting conference.

[Bob Stratton]

I haven't been in a while, but the early CFP conferences were a microcosm unlike any other. They threw together the principals of the then-nucleic Electronic Frontier Foundation, a few well-meaning FBI special agents just coming up to speed on this "computer stuff", budding policy wonks, ISPs, and a host of hackers with handles that weren't yet retired.

There was a palpable sense of good-natured suspicion all of the way around, and a hack or two along the way. The scene at the bar was not unlike "Wild Kingdom", with the law enforcement and hacker types warily circling the watering hole, and eventually sitting down together.

I believe that without some of the face-to-face contacts and channels that were developed at CFP, both the early hacker prosecutions (when computer crime law in the U.S. was haphazard), and the "crypto wars", may proven bloodier, or at least more protracted and costlier all the way around.

For a while I had the sense that attorneys were the largest population still attending, but I suspect that the DMCA/P2P/fair use battles and the burgeoning social impact of blogs will generate a new crop of participants.

It will likely be worth their while.