Oddly enough, Clipper is helpful

[Deranged Mutant <rrothenb@ic.sunysb.edu>]

Despite a few rants about how the NSA has monkeywrenched potential standards
for encryption with Clipper (market forces being what they are, even if there
were no Clipper we may still have no standard by now...), I think there is
oddly a good side to Clipper: the issue has thrown cryptography and security
into the public debate, even if marginally.

Prior to Clipper, PGP was not featured in national and international features
in TV, newspapers and magazines... now a lot of people want their hands on it.
People have become aware of communications security issues--very avaerage
folks who one might even consider techno-illiterates or luddites are now
concerned with the government's ability to listen in and watch them.

Think of Clipper as an opportunity to propose something better, as an
opportunity to make people more aware of the issue.