In that famous Goldman Sachs "theft" case, use of a tool called "Subversion" (which any IT person knows is just vanilla version control software) was taken by the FBI as evidence of malicious intent.

Just saying.

Here's the article about it I found mentioned in HN comments before: http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2013/09/michael-lewis-goldman...

Just call it Line Noise, Static, or something. No malicious intent in that.

Static is a great name.

Words have meaning and are way more important than you could even imagine. We don't think with words, we use words to think.

One example comes to mind, back in the day people used to use the word "Exploited" to talk about workers being drained of their life force. When you say exploited you assume that there is an exploiter, that someone is guilty of that worker's shitty life.

Now we mostly say the "Disenfranchised" or "Disadvantaged" which takes the "Exploiter" out of the equation entirely and put the workers plight mostly on the back of bad luck than anything else.

Words are very important.

"It's just a word which makes it stand out as a product"

So you think calling a product "nigger" is a good idea? It's just a word and it would certainly stand out.

(Before responding directly to my comment, please consider that I'm criticizing your logic, and don't actually want anyone to create a product with a hateful name)

That is a needlessly crass example. I get your point, but that's not the best way you could have made it.

I disagree. If someone has deactivated their own humanity enough to say "It's just a word" then they probably need a shocking reminder of the power of words. Making an abstract argument about words won't move the needle for a wet robot.

I disagree. Associating cryptography to a criminal term is not wise.

Exactly. How many future whistleblowers would consider using a tool named 'felony'.

I'm guessing exactly zero.

It is also bad PR. And encryption now needs more good PR than ever.