Key Registration and Big Brother--Time to Fight!

[tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)]

(Perry Metzger forwarded my message this morning to the Cypherpunks list on
the latest White House proposal....I should've also sent it to the
Extropians list myself, my vacation from the list notwithstanding. Some
things are just too important!)

The latest White House proposal to authorize a certain form of encryption,
called "Clipper Chip," (a bizarre name, which also conflicts with the
"Clipper" processor made by Intergraph), represents the reification of all
the "key registration" themes discussed for many months on sci.crypt and
elsewhere.

I urge those on the Extropians list who are interested in preserving their
dwindling freedoms in these Beknighted States of America to:

1. Follow the debate on sci.crypt and elsewhere. Hal Finney just mentioned
the various places the White House announcement was posted.

2. Subscribe to the Cypherpunks list by sending a message to
"cypherpunks-request@toad.com".  The latest "Wired," which I have not yet
seen myself, apparently has some good stuff on our group. (I reviewed
Levy's article for him, but haven't seen the mag on the newsstands yet.)

3. Get your PGP and MacPGP before "the other shoe drops." The "other shoe"
may be legal moves by RSA Data Security and others (Commerce? Justice?) to
crack down on PGP...rumblings of this have been heard for months now, and
were discussed at the last physical Cypherpunks meeting. (And the
steganographic aspects--the hiding of the mere _existence_ of an encrypted
message--will probably assume a greater importance than before.)

4. The Boston area just had its first physical Cypherpunks meeting, with
Julf intending to attend (J. Helsingius, operator of the Finnish anonymous
remailer)....I haven't heard the outcome. The U.K has had one for several
months, and of course the Bay Area has had one since before there was even
a mailing list. The Southern California area has several leading
Cypherpunks (Hal Finney, Phil Karn, Eli Brandt, others) and wants to host a
meeting of "the Cypherpunks." Instead, and in light of the serious danger
that encryption will soon have limits placed on it, I would urge them to
*just begin their own meeting* ASAP! (Sorry to sound so urgent, but they
need to start meeting long before we can arrange a meeting in San Diego or
LA.)

(One thing we talked about at the 4-10-93 meeting in Mountain View, CA, was
a conference call linking up some of the "satellite Cypherpunks." Not
secure, of course, but then neither is this list nor our physical
meetings...anybody can attend, can get added to the list, etc.)

5. Prof. Denning has more to say about key escrow and registration in the
latest (or very recent) "Communications of the ACM," which should be
available in large university libraries. Now that the proposal has become
real, it takes on more meaning.

6. It is clear that the "trial balloon" I cited in my message many months
back to sci.crypt is nauseatingly real. Under the guise of stopping "drug
dealers, terrorists, and child pornographers," we will see limits placed on
our ability to communicate privately. I have few hopes that this proposal
will be overturned by the courts, including the Supreme Court. A "garrison
state" like the U.S. is turning itself into, what with the War on (Some)
Drugs, the no-knock raids on suspects, the civil forfeiture laws, and the
attacks on "whacko Waco religious cults," has need of Nazi-like police
powers.

It seems ironic, and appropriate, that this White House announcement came
on the 50th anniversary of the discovery of LSD...April 16th, 1943.

As I said six months ago, "Be afraid, be very afraid."

As Phil Karn put it, the battle is joined.


-Tim May
--
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
tcmay@netcom.com       | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
408-688-5409           | knowledge, reputations, information markets, 
W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA  | black markets, collapse of governments.
Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: MailSafe and PGP available.