Today's history piece comes as a sequel to my other posts: 1, 2 and 3

Governments do not want the public to have access to information and since ancient times they have tried their best to stop it. The most famous example is the invention of the printing press in 1448, as it represented a giant step towards information access and freedom. After Gutenberg's invention became public, governments could no longer restrict people's access to information. Because writings, books and manuscripts can be translated into different languages and spread between different cultures. Decentralization started from that year. In 1517, Martin Luther's 95 Theses were printed in thousands of copies and translated into many languages, and his writings became known throughout the continent. As a result of his actions he was excommunicated from the Church. But without him and without the printing press, perhaps, the Protestant Reformation would have failed.

Whoever has the information has the power and usually the elites, governments, corporations, law enforcement hold the information. Or the Church, as was the case with Luther. And they never want the public to access it, because that would lose their power.

Let's go back to modern times, but to old times. John Gilmore, one of them, had a personal vendetta against the NSA during Cypherpunk. Or maybe I should have written that the NSA had a personal vendetta with them? One of the most significant information victories against them was conducted by Gilmour in 1989 where he released a classified document. The document's author was working for Xerox, and the NSA specifically requested Xerox to destroy the document. John Gilmour disagreed with this censorship and posted the document on the Internet. Of course it was quickly downloaded thousands of times and a war broke out between Gilmore and the NSA.

In 1992, another major battle took place between John Gilmore and the NSA. For obvious reasons (about censorship of free information), the manuscripts of William Friedman - considered the father of cryptography in the United States - were classified, even though they were written during World War II. Gilmore disagrees again, saying that he thinks Friedman's work should be available to anyone interested. So he called the NSA into a court of law and requested that the books be declassified under the Freedom of Information Act. However, the NSA refused his request, thus all had to be settled during a trial. Later, he found Friedman's books in a public library. During the trial, he was informed that if he did not hand over the books to the regime, he would be charged with espionage, which carries a 10-year prison sentence, because he was in possession of classified materials. The NSA didn't stop there. The company tried to find other "intelligent" materials in various public spaces. Gilmour told the judge that what he found was already public, since the books were in a public library, and that he decided to speak to the press about the entire case. Soon the books were printed by Aegean Park Press.

Gilmore's case became public, and the government backed down from that moment. The charges were dropped and the manuscripts were published. John Gilmour won. The people also won, because the people's information was in the people's hands, as it always should be.

The battle for freedom of speech, for privacy and to render governance irrelevant began long ago. It's in our hands now.