Is Clipper Almost Dead? (was: Clipper and Tipper on Route 666)

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

Clark Reynard writes:

> I must say I had never considered the possibility that
> the Data Superhighway itself might be a scam; but it's
> an interesting possibility.  

I don't think it's a deliberate scam, just a Bad Idea. On the other
hand, once the idea got rolling (Al Gore campaigned on the idea of the
Data Superhighway), I'm sure the various government agencies made
their comments and meshed their plans for Clipper, Skipjack, Capstone
(data encryption, not just voice), and so forth, with the emerging
ideas about subsidizing the Net to meet "national goals."

By the way, the White House guy I mentioned, Tom Kalil, made much of
the plans to tie the "single payer" health insurance system into his
discussion, describing how one's "HealthCard" would be used to
transfer medical records across the Nets to other hospitals and
insurance company computers, how the NII would be used to "cut costs"
by computerizing all records, etc. Very scary.

(Duncan Frissell, over on Extropians wrote some great stuff on how one
might avoid being issued one of these HealthCards...my favorite: "I
thought I might be an illegal alien.")

> Perhaps the spooks have, as we all know, been buying
> CD-ROMS and grepping 'em.  It could be a conspiracy

Oh, can there be any doubt about this? The "Open Sources" plan just
makes this official policy.

> "Route 666."  I like that.  How does one get
> hold of Pat Robertson's people?  And get him
> to think we're good Christian boys, so they'll
> do it?  I think Pat's _already_ pissed about
> this Clipper thing, and he'd be happy to talk
> about evil liberal perfidy in the White House.

Thanks. My reference was of course to the well-known paranoia the
Christian Right has to "the mark of the Beast" and the growing concern
that an electronified Orwellian world would be the realization of this
fear.

Phil Karn brought a tape of the "700 Club" Clipper piece with him to
Hackers. It was really amazing, honest. The news anchor, a black named
Ben Kinchlow (sp?), was very well informed (contrast him with Dan
Rather or the like) and was very agitated about the Clipper plans.

Granted, the Christian Right does not subscribe to most of our views
about other freedoms in society. I won't get into these topics here.

But we may as well find allies where we can. The same goes for them
RU-486-usin', pot-smokin' lesbos in Baghdad-by-the-Bay. That is, get
folks on the Left _and_ the Right to fear what an Orwellian
surveillance society would really mean for anyone not in power at the
time and thus get them to side against the survelliance society
planning per se.

If you've read this far, here's a bonus news item (a reward for those
who actually read my articles!): John Markoff, the reporter for the
"New York Times" who has written many outstanding articles on crypto
and computers, told me at Hackers that the Clipper debacle is
unraveling:

- that AT&T is pissed-off at the bad publicity they're getting, and at
the confusion and delays in delivering the final version of the chips
(sounds contradictory, but I think you can see how they'd be pissed
that they're catching hell---and for nothing on their bottom line so
far).

- that heads may roll in the NSA/NIST world, with Clint Brooks, the
point man on Clipper, being moved sideways or down to another job.
Sounds like damage control is starting.

- that Dorothy Denning is now almost isolated from her former
colleagues, at least in terms of her reputation, and that she herself
is trying to do some damage control (but several of us think she'll
mainly be the "outside consultant" for the Feds for years to
come...that is, she's cast her lot with the Feds).

So, the efforts of the EFF, various corporate policy groups, security
activists, and even our own group, seem to have paid off.
Clipper/Capstone seems to be in a state of confusion.

We may not have to push too much harder.

I say we increase our attention on the Data Superhighway and try to
kill it as well.

--Tim May


-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
tcmay@netcom.com       | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
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