Sameer Parekh

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Sameer Parekh (Hindi: समीर परेख) is the founder of C2Net Software, Inc.

While in high school in Libertyville, Illinois,[1] he published an underground newspaper called The Free Journal, promoting libertarian ideas.[2]

In 1993 Parekh moved to Berkeley, California, to attend the University of California, Berkeley, and joined the cypherpunks.[3] In his second year at Cal, he started C2Net, a privacy-oriented ISP which provided anonymous accounts and an anonymous remailer, and was the first home of the Anonymizer web surfing proxy.[4][5][6]

Through the mid- to late 1990s, Parekh was a frequently cited critic of U.S. policy on encryption software.[7][8][9][10] The cover story for the September 1997 issue of Forbes focused on his views of the political and social impact of cryptography.[1] Through C2Net, Parekh pioneered the offshore development of cryptography by U.S. companies to avoid U.S. regulation,[11] and later helped organize the first global conference on financial cryptography in Anguilla.[12] He was also an advisor to and the chairman of HavenCo, a company that attempted to create a data haven in the Principality of Sealand.[13]

After selling C2Net to Red Hat,[14] Parekh traveled around Central and Eastern Europe in 2001 on a DJ tour. He played in countries such as Poland, Serbia, Croatia, Latvia.[15] He also produced a number of "renegade" events in the Port of Oakland.[16]

Parekh was a 2007 Lincoln Fellow of the Claremont Institute.[17]

As of spring 2012, Parekh is the proprietor of Falkor Systems, a flying robot startup based in the New York area.[18] In 2014, he was "Entrepreneur in Residence" at the Correll Robotics lab, University of Colorado at Boulder.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b McHugh, Josh (September 8, 1997). "Politics for the really cool". Forbes.
  2. ^ "Index of /Politics/Free.Journal". June 20, 2001. Archived from the original on 2001-06-20.
  3. ^ Secret Agents, cover story of the East Bay Express, March 14, 1997
  4. ^ "First Monday: Prospects for Remailers". Archived from the original on May 17, 2008.
  5. ^ "The Anonymizer". www.december.com.
  6. ^ Staff, WIRED (January 1, 1997). "Scans". Wired – via www.wired.com.
  7. ^ "Interview with Sameer Parekh | Linux Journal". www.linuxjournal.com.
  8. ^ "Stefan Wolf CyberSecurity & IAM Consulting". cybertrust.de.
  9. ^ "Interview with Sameer Parekh Issue 20". linuxgazette.net.
  10. ^ "Can you keep a secret?". www.efc.ca.
  11. ^ "C2Net Short-Circuits US Crypto Policy". Wired. March 19, 1997 – via www.wired.com.
  12. ^ "Cryptography and Paranoia in Anguilla". archive.nytimes.com.
  13. ^ Garfinkel, Simson (July 1, 2000). "Welcome to Sealand. Now Bugger Off". Wired – via www.wired.com.
  14. ^ "News and press releases". www.redhat.com.
  15. ^ "Sameer's Gallery :: Tour 2001". Archived from the original on October 9, 2007.[dead link]
  16. ^ Hua, Vanessa (January 21, 2001). "Putting Tech in TECHNO / Dot-coms, electronic music scene in harmony". SFGate.
  17. ^ "The Claremont Institute - 2007 Lincoln Fellows". Archived from the original on May 15, 2008.
  18. ^ "falkorsystems.com". falkorsystems.com.