Re: Gore's "new and improved" key escrow proposal

[Carl Ellison <cme@tis.com>]

>Date: Sun, 24 Jul 94 04:30:20 EDT
>From: wcs@anchor.ho.att.com (bill.stewart@pleasantonca.ncr.com +1-510-484-6204)
>Subject: Re: Gore's "new and improved" key escrow proposal

[Software Key Escrow details omitted]

>Will they be able to get us to accept this abuse?  Maybe.
>I hope Clipper put a bad enough taste in the public's mouth that
>they won't get away with it, but a hardware chip is a lot more concrete
>than "telecommunications software protocol standards" for many people.

I doubt anyone would get you and me to buy this -- but the danger is that
Microsoft and company might buy it.  That leaves us ok, because we have PGP
but my friend Lolly is vulnerable.  Given a choice between a cheap public
access UNIX system and America OnLine, she chose AOL because it was icon-
driven and had a simple-to-learn mailer.  I was even tempted to switch
because of the off-line mail (flash sessions).

The lesson is clear.

We who write code have a few weeks (maybe a month or two) in which to
write simple-to-learn mailers.  Crypto algorithm code or even PGP-phone
is far less important than Mac and Windows applications which tie together
offline/online mail for various systems (MCIMAIL, ATTMAIL, PAunices, AOL?, ...)
with PGP and RIPEM.


 - Carl