Stalling the crypto legislation for 2-3 more years

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

> Carl Ellison says:
> > if you really want to propose an escrow system we can live with,
> > I would demand that it include:
> 
> I cannot conceive of an escrow system I could live with. I respect
> some of the people broaching the concept, but I object to the very
> idea. I will no more escrow my communications than I will agree to
> speak only next to the microphones.
> 
> Perry

I echo Perry's concern. I hope that the "community" will not get
caught up in a game of "help us make key escrow better" and thus get
co-opted (as we used to call it) into the system.

I'm sure Carl and others are just exploring the intellectual ideas
involved, especially as we exchanged personal mail over this topic
a few minutes ago, but there is still the danger that all the various
ideas will result in this co-opting.

In my opinion, the worse danger comes from having the Washington
crypto-lobbyists co-opted into a system they can "live with" (as in
"we can live with this"). The Administration has probably concluded
that they failed to get "buy-ins" from the various influential
lobbying groups prior to dropping Clipper on us like a bombshell on
that fateful April day in 1993. 

I'd hate to see EFF, CPSR, and EPIC all "brought into the tent" on
this one, having seen how Kapor and others got so enthralled by the
Digital Superduperhighway that a bad idea got pushed along more than a
little bit by them.

But it may be inevitable. We "rejectionists," who reject crypto
legislation of nearly any sort, are very poor negotiating partners, as
we have nothing to deliver, nothing to make deals with.

But like I said in a recent message, we have a stronger hand to play:
the widespread deployment of many crypto systems, making regulation of
crypto effectively impossible. We may already be at this point, given
the "cryptodiversity" (after "biodiversity") of multiple programs,
multiple platforms, and many communications paths. And in 2-3 more
years, we'll surely be there.

If we can stall and sabotage until then, we should be home free.

--Tim May

(Sorry for using so many buzz phrases, like "buy ins" and "inside the
tent"; these are used as shorthand for the bureaucratic mind-set,
which has a whole glossary of these phrases.)

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