Netherlands and Other European Countries

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

Mike Duvos wrote:

> P.S. Is anyone worried that the Netherlands seems on the verge of
> banning PGP?  Wasn't this country once a hacker's paradise?
> 

This has been apparent for a while now, with numerous reports that
several European countries are far along in adopting Clipper-type
systems. Possibly under cooperative arrangements with the USA.

As for the Netherlands being a hacker's paradise....recall that
telephone and other services are under the control of the "PTT"
(Postal, Telegraph, and Telephone monopoly) that's
so common in European countries. If they say "no modems may be
attached," that's the law. (I don't know the current status, but at
one time there were severe restrictions, heavy fees, etc.)

Ask the guys at Hactic, De Zwarte Star, and BILWET (Amsterdam Association for
the Dissemination of Illegal Science) about the surveillance done on
them by the BVD, the Binnenlandse Veilegheids Dienst, the Dutch
Internal Security Service. 

France essentially bans all crypto--enforcement may be another matter
(ask SDECE).  One of our Norwegian members recently reported on
proposed legislation in his country. Britain is taking steps. And what
is going on in Germany, with the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), their
version of the CIA, asking for and receiving broad new surveillance
powes. (And Germany's version of the FBI, the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA),
is getting into the wiretap business in a big way.)

"Orderly societies" like those in Europe prize order and control over
the "cowboy" aspects of America.  Just because the American debate
over Clipper and Digital Telephony is so loud and angry here in the
U.S. is no reason to believe that the same measures are not already
being put into place in Europe and parts of Asia.

--Tim May


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Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
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