Proposal: Another emergency session of Cypherpunks

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

Summary: Maybe it's time for another emergency session of Cypherpunks
to discuss policy in the aftermath of the double whammy announcements
of Tessera/Clipper II and the new and even more dangerous Digital
Telephony Bill.

After the Clipper announcement last April, we had a special emergency
meeting of Cypherpunks. Heavily attended, lots of discussion.

This time around, we most knew things like Tessera and a new Digital
Telephony Bill were coming, but the actuality of them has now been
made real. 

The "ban on encryption" hasn't yet happened, but more and more
roadblocks (another digital highway stupid metaphor?) are being
erected. For example, any service provider, university network,
hardware maker, etc., who fails to make transmissions "readable" faces
$10,000 a day penalties under my reading of Digital Telephony. This
could make an awful lot of service providers wary of _anything_ that
doesn't look like plain old English chitchat...they may just cancel
the accounts of anyone doing anything "funny." (Yes, there are
probably ways to skirt these reactions, but it means pushing
encryption underground, into tricks using stegonagraphy,
superencryption, and less publicizing of one's PGP keys. Not a good
thing. I agree with Perry Metzger that _public use_ or encryption is
the best approach, practically and morally. Hiding the use of it keeps
it "ghettoized.")

So, I propose that we reorient our next Cypherpunks meeting (Saturday,
March 12th, I presume) to deal with these issues. Some topics:

* Legal overview of the Digital Telephony Bill. If Mike Godwin could
link up with the other D.C.-area folks (Pat Farrell, Paul Ferguson,
etc.), and then have a link to our meeting, this would be ideal.

* When could Digital Telephony become law and what would be the
implications?

* Ditto for Tessera, Capstone, etc.

* Status of Voice-PGP efforts....when will SoundBlaster-type software
be available? What about encrypted IP packets on workstations instead?
(Recall the impressive DES-encrypted conference call the 3 Cypherpunks
groups had at the emergency Clipper meeting last April.)

(I've heard talk--no pun intended--of several "Voice-PGP" projects,
using SoundBlaster hardware, CELP, DSPs, etc., but no software seems
to be available right now. How much longer do we have?)

* How to fight these proposals, or work around them.

It'd also be nice if some of the outlying groups (Cambridge, MA,
Washington, D.C., London, Colorado, Austin) could link up with us at
least briefly. (If we started at noon, California time, that would be
fine for the East Coasters, but 8 or 9 p.m. for the Londoners....does
the London group still meet?)

This is just an idea. Let's discuss it.


--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: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available.
"National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."