[Design] FYI: Software Pioneer Quits Groove Networks

[Michael Herman (Parallelspace)]

Software Pioneer Quits Groove Networks
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 6:25 p.m. ET March 11, 2003

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Mitch Kapor, a software pioneer and privacy
advocate, has quit the board of Groove Networks Inc. after it sold
collaboration software to a controversial Department of Defense surveillance
project.

In an interview Tuesday, Kapor declined to elaborate on his departure other
than to say he has long planned to increase his focus on a nonprofit venture
and will remain a major Groove shareholder.

...

On Tuesday, Groove spokesman Richard Eckel confirmed Kapor's resignation,
which occurred in January. He also confirmed that the Defense Advanced
Research Project Agency, of which the TIA office is a project, is a client.

``Mitch left the board to pursue spending 100 percent of his time on
nonprofit activities,'' Eckel said.

...

The Total Information Office, led by former Reagan administration national
security adviser John Poindexter, is attempting to develop a
terrorist-identification system that could sift through financial,
telephone, travel and medical records of citizens.

...

Kapor said he is troubled by the project.

``I'm a very committed civil libertarian, and along with other civil
libertarians, I have significant concerns about the potential damage to our
freedoms from the TIA project,'' he said.

...