RIP, legendary cypherpunk Tim May

Tim May was one of the founders of the cypherpunk movement, whose seminal Crypto Anarchist Manifesto is still startling relevant today, a quarter century after it was written.

May's work was critical to the fight to legalize civilian access to strong cryptography, and to resist the Clinton administration's doomed and absurd attempt to ban working cryptography (this campaign is still alive and well, and gaining ground in Australia).

May was featured in Steven Levey's Wired cover story Crypto Rebels, which was the issue I picked up a couple of weeks before dropping out of university to work in the tech industry (these are not unrelated facts).

May has died of natural causes, at the age of 67. The famous cryptographer Lucky Green has written quite a remembrance of May that gives a very good sense of the man and his life.