Exposing GAK / Clipper III

[Tim Scanlon <tfs@adsl-122.cais.com>]

(this is my preliminary .02 cents on a part of this so far)

I've been giving the "how to deal with this" question some thought,
as it seems the government strategy is to chip away at our
right to privacy via extorting compromise and any other method
they can come up with. 

It occurs to me that one of the things that has been going on,
is that the Government (US) in it's discussion of crypto and
what it will and won't allow, has been playing on the nature of
the beast somewhat. In that many of the most tradtional uses of
crypto are to keep the conversations of governments private,
there is a neccesary tradition of quiet and secrecy that goes on
about it.

It appears to me that this aspect of "quiet" discussion has carried
over into the discussions with the private sector over it. Well, the
problem I see with that is that it makes little to no sense. There
is no reason for it. In many, many other sectors of the government,
with the defense industry perhaps being the most leading one, 
private entities of all sorts, and particularly corporations, go to
a serious effort to openly lobby their positions as well as what they
want PUBLICLY to the government.

The recent spam of TV ads in the DC area by Lockheed Martin corp. is 
a very good example of this type of effort. 

My point being, what sorts of things the government is asking of
industry should be far more openly disputed and discussed, and lobbied
than they are. Crypto is not the black art, nor is it that-which-has-no
name and should you say it you'll be struck by lightning type of thing
that certain gov entities treat it as, it's a frakin tool to ensure
privacy, and that's all. Granted, it's one hell of a hard tool to work
on and with, but it's still just a tool.

We need more openess from industry and interested corporations. Lame
press confrences that come after the fact are not in their or the
public's interest. Perhaps we as the public should try to encourage that
more directly from corps as well.
 



Tim