Cryptography in France

[Thomas Hennes <aie-rd@pobox.oleane.com>]

This is my first post to the cypherpunks mailing list. I've been
monitoring it for a little while now, and I would like to initiate a
thread on the sorry state of public crypto in France, and would much
much appreciate feedback, comments and thoughts on the following.

It is no secret that public crypto here in France is a fucking joke. For
those of you who aren't up-to-date with French gov't policy on the
subject, let me state the simple: Public use of crypto (and esp. STRONG
crypto) is *outlawed* in France. This mere fact gives us (the French)
the dubious achievement of being rated along with the likes of China,
Iran, Iraq and former USSR, to name a few.

Now remember, this comes from a country that labels itself as the "Home
country of the Human Rights", yet denies its citizen access to the
technical means of ensuring REAL privacy. 

A much-needed privacy, considering the phone-tapping scandal that rocked
France two or three years back (then-prez Miterrand himself had ordered
that a whole bunch of people --novelists, journalists, politicians,
artists and various other intellectuals-- have their phone tapped and
their conversations recorded, without any legal permission to do so.
Even an uncle of mine was placed on such a list.).

I _do_ believe that a strong case --legally, economically and
philosophically-- could be made for the legalization of strong public
crypto in France. And I am also confident that we are moving toward a de
facto use of strong crypto in everyday life.

There are several legal points that could force the French gov't to give
some slack on crypto regulation. The first one is, of course, the
process of building Europe (I am not so naive as to believe this will be
a success, but it WILL provide us with some legal power to wield). Of
all nations being part of the EEC, France is the only one that enforces
such restrictions on public crypto. But, and this is my point, French
gov't has made a big fuss about standardization of regulation throughout
EEC and its participants, and when it comes to crypto, I believe they've
put their foot in their mouth!! ;-)

Second legal point: arguing the moral point of freedom of guaranteed
privacy. Outlawing public crypto *might* be unconstitutional,
considering that the French constitutions have always been built around
the anarchists revolutionaries of 1789 declaration of human rights. The
gov't will counter with 'Raison d'Etat' and need for terrorist
surveillance, but this is the same as saying weapon sales should be
prohibited to keep thugs away from weapons. Thugs *always* manage to get
weapons, and terrorists *always* manage to escape surveillance and plant
bombs in our streets and metro system.

Economically, the case could be made for public crypto by underlining
the importance of internet economics. It is a stated and definitive fact
that e-cash cannot exist without cryptographic means. Now if the general
public hasn't got access to strong crypto, why would they risk dealing
in e-cash??? Thus France would be left out of an immense -and as of now
virgin- commercial market, which in the near future would mean
commercial death. And that's not counting all the employement
opportunities that would be, one can speculate, created by the
flourishing of web commercial ventures. Ironically, Netscape has been
granted by the French gov't an 'extraordinary' license to use
cryptography in their Navigator software (even though it's the lame,
40-bit export key size). Which means that, as of now, the one and only
company that WOULD technically allow French citizens to engage in
electronic commerce is a foreign company... So on one hand we have the
French gov't making a huge fuss about 'Cultural Exception' when the
subject at hand is protecting the French TV and movie business --which
nobody actually gives a damn about--, and on the other hand, the very
same gov't not only regulates against strong public crypto, but when it
finally gives in a little, it's to the profit of a foreign company..
Next thing you know, France is going to equip all its phones with the
Clipper chip so that the NSA can listen in on, say, Airbus trade
secrets.. Can you get any dumber than this? The last economically sound
point relates to competition. By forbidding strong public crypto, France
has seriously hampered the ability of French cryptologists to move
forward technically, since they receive much less feedback than, say,
their scandinavian or US counterparts. And I believe that, in the long
term, strong public crypto WILL prevail --I AM optimistic (or is that
naive?). So all the French gov't is doing here is denying would-be
French companies to deal competitively in the crypto market, which I am
sure will explode with the coming of electronic commerce.

My last arguments are of the philosophical/moral/political order.
Politics in France have reached an all-time low at the end of 14 years
of Socialism (some may disagree on this, but this is MY belief).
Corruption is now widespread, at every levels of the public
administration, and at all 'rays' of the political spectrum. Politicians
now have more privileges than the royalty used to have just before the
revolution of 1789, when the laws and budgets were more deftly
controlled by house representatives than they are nowadays. Politicians
nowadays live as a microcosm, in an enclosed glasscase, protecting each
other regardless of ideology or political faith. They act as
superior-class citizens where they were meant to be representative of
the people, the citizens that mandated them as such. So I believe that
strong crypto is not only a right, but a mean that every citizen should
use against the preponderance of such a privileged class, in order to
make the French motto 'Liberte Egalite Fraternite' something else than
an obsolete joke. 

I'm not an anarchist, nor am I illuminated. I'm a regular guy with a
regular job. I'm simply tired of all these self-proclaimed important
people that live in the fast lane with MY taxes. And crypto would be a
mean for me to combat them more efficiently and to bring back some of
that much-needed social equilibrium. And, the hell with it, I want
GUARANTEED PRIVACY.

On Monday 18 Nov. Greg Broiles wrote:

>ICF is "International Cryptography Framework". 
>
>The press release includes quotes from US and >>French<< government officials
>indicating that the new system will meet their needs.

Man, this spells T-R-O-U-B-L-E ... ;-)

Thomas Hennes
aie-rd@pobox.oleane.com

PS: I would've loved to CC this thing to Chirac or PM Jupp�, but neither
of them have actual e-mails, which tells you a lot about the interest
they have in net-business...