The New Mykotronix phones...

["Mr. Noise" <mrnoise@econs.umass.edu>]

Please forgive me for replying to a message that's already a month old,
but I was in the process of wading through the messages that have 
swamped my mailbox while I was doing end-of-the-semester stuff & didn't
come across any replies...so just a brief note or two before I
submerge again to study for my last Ph.D. comprehensive:

>     Okay, let's suppose that the NSA/NIST/Mykotronix Registered
>     Key system becomes standard and I'm able to buy such a system
>     from my local radio shack. Every phone comes with a built in
>     chip and the government has the key to every phone call. 
>     I go and buy a phone and dutifully register the key. 
> 
>     What's to prevent me from swapping phones with a friend or 
>     buying a used phone at a garage sale? Whooa. The secret registered
>     keys just became unsynchronized. When the government comes 
>     to listen in, they only receive gobbledly-gook because the 
>     secret key registered under my name isn't the right one. 

This is a good, creative response to fascist technology, but I wonder if I'm
the only one on this list who's noticed a parallel between the government's
attitude toward small arms & its attitude approach to cryptography?  (After
all, cryptographic technology *is* dealt with as a 'munition' in the export
laws, right?)  While this means that many of the same defenses apply to 
crypto as to arms--as in "When codes are outlawed, only outlaws will have
codes," a tagline I made up when I first started using PGP--it also means that
we can expect the government (& other opponents) to use similar tactics in
trying to deny us our right to privacy.

So how might the government respond if we were to use the tactic described
above?  Well, just consider what they would do if you loaned someone your
handgun & they committed a crime with it:  they hold you responsible as well.
If we allow a system of key registry to be instituted in any form, I think we
can expect the same boneheaded legislation restricting our freedom to use
cryptography as is currently inflicted on would-be gun owners.  If nothing
else, "key permits" would represent a new source of revenue for the tax-crazed
Clinton administration & governors across the fruited plains!  Consider that,
in order to obtain local & state permits to carry a handgun in my home state of
Connecticut it costs a total of $50 for the first year alone & $25 per year to
renew the liscence (it may cost even more in other towns, I don't know)!  &
then there's the paperwork, & the wait, &....