Re: The GAK Momentum is Building...

[Lucky Green <shamrock@netcom.com>]

On Mon, 16 Sep 1996, Timothy C. May wrote:
> 
> -- the "Clipper IV" (or is it only Clipper III?) GAK announcement expected
> "soon"

Its Clipper IV. It will take the form of a bill introduced by the USG later
this Fall.

> It seems that several of these announcements are happening at the same
> time, which I doubt is coincidental.

Nothing coincidental about it. The USG, through its front man Al Gore, 
has used time honored "divide and conquer" techniques to get the industry 
leaders to support their fascist agenda by promising to let them off 
easy under the future rules. For crying out loud, CyberCash, to give one 
example, touts in all their recent presentations how they have compliance 
with regulations that don't even exist yet built into their system.

Meanwhile, HP, TIS, IBM, and others have made a deal to sell their 
children's birthright for fast track single DES export.

I read some five newspaper articles on export control/GAK in the last few 
days. All mentioned as a matter of fact that GAK will be part of 
lightened export controls. None questioned the connection between 
domestic GAK and foreign exports. The worst of these articles, in the 
Sunday SF Chronicle, mentioned as the only defenders of non-GAK 
encryption hackers by the name of "Black Knight", etc. who were quoted as 
having no explanation for the dichotomy between "information wants to be 
free" and "I don't want the Feds to read my email".

It is a done deal,

--Lucky, who told you this three years ago.