Prtty much nobody would understand the connotations of Locke, Mill or Hobbes, and amongst those who do they'd be contentious.
Consider that for example Mill thought despotism could be acceptable under utilitarian principles if the end result was a better society afterwards; I don't know what you think of Marx [Marx Mail? Maybe not], but even an authoritarian reading of Marx ideological works fits within utilitarian principles to those who agree with it, while those who read Marx from a libertarian viewpoint, e.g. left communists, would generally find Mills distastefully authoritarian.
Locke was a major investor in the slave trade, and a central participant in trying to institute a feudal aristocracy in Carolina - writing about freedoms while trying to deprive others of them. Locke Mail in that respect would be fitting brand for a NSA run mail service for its hypocrisy alone.
Hobbes, while talking about individual rights, was a supporter of a strong central government an a supporter of absolute monarchy. He too would be a suitable beacon for the NSA.
That is not to say that these people were not important for the development of philosophical ideas related to freedom, but only in relation to the politics of the time. Today all three of them are archaic and authoritarian compared to a lot of more recent philosophers.
As for Liberty Mail, outside of the US at least it would be likely to leave a bad taste with a lot of people. It reads like Far-Right-Wing-US-Nationalistic-Nutjob-Mail or Lets-Pretend-It-Is-Liberty-While-We-Screw-You-Over-Mail to me, and I know a lot of people likely to have similar reactions.
"Free-Mail" is a possibility. It rolls off the tongue like "email", is not so politically charged like "Freedom-Mail", and can entice people with the word "Free" while you can educate them (not an easy problem to solve though) with the "Free as in Freedom, not as in Beer".
I suggest names that don't have limited country/cultural references if the intent is to make this a global success. Some other suggestions:
-SecMail (Secure Email)
-PrivMail (private/privacy email)
-FMail (freedom email)
-NetMail (New Internet standard email)
And thank you for taking this on, it is seriously needed. And please, no reliance on CA certs, chances are the NSA has compromised at least some of those.
Hobbes Mail makes no sense; either you're in the condition of the war of all against all (no thanks) or you've surrendered everything to a single sovereign (no thanks).
Haha, a valid point! :) I wasn't thinking of Leviathan, rather some of his thoughts on liberalism[1]. The right of the individual, that political power should represent the people etc.
[1] Liberalism in it's classic and original sense (not the skewed meaning that it somehow has gotten here in the US).
His thoughts on liberalism are deeply connected with his social contract theory. He believed the strong central government was a necessity to protect the right of the individual, and that so individuals do cede power to the sovereign by acceding to a social contract.
The social contract of Hobbes is not something one can opt out of, or refuse, but an explanation and justification for individual rights within an absolute monarchy. At the same time Hobbes argued that to preserve the peace was so central that the sovereign had the power, and was indeed duty bound under the social contract, to take whatever measures necessary to ensure peace - even authoritarian measures.
His ideas on social contract theory are historically important as a pre-cursor to more expansive ideas about personal freedoms, but they are extremely authoritarian by most modern standards.
>or you've surrendered everything to a single sovereign
Well, Bruce Schneier has argued that that's what security is becoming today: feudal (https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/12/feudal_sec.ht...). If you wanted to, you could instead call most if not all currently existing email services "Hobbes mail".
I would go with something like 'sealed mail' and imply the imagery of how in the olden days mail was sealed with a wax stamp. A strong visual analogy can be very powerful.
Without searching I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. I guess it is something related to free speech in the USA? I might remember it from school.
What I am implying is that it seems like a localized term and people elsewhere might have no connotation(?) to it. In German the word means a curl of hair.
I'd say the advantage of 'Locke Mail' is that it gives the right associations even to people who haven't heard of John Locke. Locked Mail. Mail protected by a (cryptographic) lock.
He might be fitting in relation to US history considering that while he spoke of equality and freedom, he was a major investor in the slave trade (he also was involved in trying to introduce a feudal aristocracy in Carolina).
He was very progressive for his time, and so he's one of the "icons" of classical liberalism, but he died in 1704, and we've moved on a tad from then.
Freedom \ Liberty \ Patriot \ Constitution Mail would be very effective in blocking political speeches and biased headlines from cheap attacks.
My personal favorite is Lincoln Mail... Seems highly appropriate on many levels and should be FOX News proof.
As a non-American, all of these terms remind me of irritating American flag-waving rhetoric (the kind used to justify the types of things that the NSA is doing right now, for that matter), and I would wager most of the world would feel the same.
So why not use multiple brands? I don't think the name is to be taken lightly at all, and naming it in such a way that doesn't make it such an easy target could do some real good. They just need to bring the tech, and then we can have a whole laundry list of names suitable for different languages/cultures.
Some of those suggestions lose their punch when moved to a non-American context.
I'd argue that the name should work on the assumption that it is the defacto standard, and so there is no need to distinguish between "normal mail" and "new mail". It should also contain a possessive pronoun. (Something like "YourMail", if not already taken?).
With such a name, when someone attacks the mail service it will be difficult to avoid attacking the person, as an attacker will have to attack "YourMail". Attack the person and the person will react.
Not distinguishing between normal and new will have two effects:
1) It will seem a normal thing for the uninitiated to use it.
2) In the case of an attack, it will be easier for people to say the attack is directed at themselves, since the generic name will draw people in, rather than letting them dismiss it as an exclusive club.
Not only lose their punch, most of them sounds untrustworthy and cheesy in a non-American context, as we are very much used to Americans tacking on "freedom" or "liberty" to disguise the opposite.
As a counterpoint, who could possibly argue against passing something called the 'Patriot Act'? To do so would almost be un-patriotic, right? DarkMail, however, is a bit different. Is that what the bad-guys are using these days?
Any philosopher, ideologist or politicians you might think of will elicit exactly the opposite reactions of what you want from a substantial percentage of people who would otherwise like the idea.
Some suggestions:
- Locke Mail [from John Locke]
- Mill Mail [from John Stuart Mill]
- Hobbes Mail
- Liberty Mail