US Should Forbid Export of Digital Wiretap Technology (fwd)

[hughes@ah.com (Eric Hughes)]

   comp.society.privacy yields the following from crawford@scipp.ucsc.edu
   (Mike Crawford).  I _think_ it's black humor, but the moderator of c.s.p
   seems to have accepted it at face value.

No, it's serious, and it's brilliant.

The gambit is this.  The law enforcement community argues that they
won't abuse their technical ability to wiretap.  Implicitly they
acknowledge that such ability is both possible and undesirable.  Now
Mike Crawford observes that legal safeguards, _which are the only
safeguards_, do not exist in other countries, and therefore
uncontrollable wiretapping, which is acknowledged undesirable, should
be restricted by law in this country which prevents such equipment
from being deployed in a country without safeguards.

Now, do you think that any switch manufacturer is going to want to see
their international market torn to shreds like this?

Eric