Re: Cypherbusts, etc.

[Stanton McCandlish <mech@eff.org>]

> I just heard about the grand jury BS going down around PGP, etc, via the
> EFF forum on the Well and would like to do whatever I can to support the
> defense effort (when it comes) etc.  I am a writer with some small access to
> local media and a big interest in the outcome of this test of our 1st
> amendment rights.

Great!  One thing to do would be to do editorials for as many papers as
possible.  The greatest problem facing "us" (meaning anyone opposing the
clipper fiasco), is that the general populace are ignorant, by and large
of the following things:

1) what encryption/cryptography is, and why they should care.
2) that any successful attempt to squash public cryptography and replace it
   with govt. spy-mechanisms sets a really terrible precedent.  In following
   decades we would likely see the removal of more rights and privacy, and
   the approval of ever more invasive "law enforcement" techniques.
3) what the history of agencies such as NSA and the SS is, and why they
   are not to be trusted (noting that Treasury controls not only Customs, who
   are responsible for enforcing many of the laws affecting crypto, but
   the SS, and BATF, could be of use.  We are supposed to trust some
   unspecified Treasury sub-bureaucracy [not to mention NIST] to hold the
   keys to our privacy in the right hand, while menacing users of private
   cryptography via subpoenas and grand juries with the left hand?)
4) that BILLIONS of dollars every year are lost by US businesses to the
   industrial espionage of foreign competitors, who are under no ITARish 
   restrictions on how they protect what they hold.
5) that the ITAR and the Clipper/Capstone/Clipjack scheme threatens to destroy
   the US market for cryptographic applications, while this market, with a 
   potential easily in the billions of dollars per year, goes to other
   nations.  With one exception of course: PKP/RSADSI, who have a virtual 
   monopoly on crypto in this country due to patents on algorithms (aka
   "ownership" of properties of mathematics, "possession" of natural
   processes of the universe.  What next?  Will GE get a trademark on
   sunlight?)  Ask the hard question: What is the relationship between PKP/RSA
   and the US Government?  Why is RSA granted these patents?  Why does
   NIST insist on giving exclusive license on DSA encryption to RSA, despite
   the fact that DSA was developed with YOUR tax money, not the capital of a
   private business entity?
6) that it is painfully obvious that the "to stop drug dealers, child
   molesters, and terrorists" rhetoric is a very lame and transparent excuse.
   Not even a stupid criminal would use crypto that the govt. freely admits
   was designed with wiretapping in mind.  The ONLY way that Clipper could
   be useful is if all other forms of cryptography that the govt. cannot crack
   are BANNED outright.  Given that it seems clear that the targets are
   not nebulous Bad Guys (TM), but the US citizenry at large.  Lest this sound
   paranoid, note that even when directly asked, the govt. has yet to deny
   it is NOT considering banning non-Clipper cryptographic applications.
   Beyond this, the original proposal hinted strongly that the "key escrow
   agents" would not be govt. agencies.  So much for that.  NSA's lackey,
   NIST, on one hand, and our friends the Treasury on the other.  Boy, I sure
   feel safe, don't you?

There's plenty of other issues, but that's a good place to start.  As has
been adequately hashed out here, there's not much for J. Random Citizen to do
about the subpoenas.  This does not hold true of the entire Clipper
scheme, nor of the NIST/PKP scandal.  Make it plain to your readers that
crypto is important, and is for them.  Make it obvious that they DO have a
stake in what is going on right now, and they can play a part.

 > I would also like to get on your "mailing list" if you have one.

Send a message with "SUBSCRIBE <full name, not email address>" in the BODY
of the message to cypherpunks-request@toad.com.


-- 
DISCLAIMER: This message represents only my OWN opinion, not that of EFF.
Stanton McCandlish    Electronic Frontier Foundation Online Activist
mech@eff.org          NitV-DataCenter BBS SysOp
Fido: <tba>           IndraNet: 369:111/1