Re: HP Crypto Export

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

At 17:58 -0500 2/28/98, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>Now, the FBI wants to ban U.S. software without such peepholes. Doesn't
>crypto-crippleware make it much easier for the government to issue only
>key recovery tokens when everyone's existing ones expire?
>"Whatever the law is in the U.S., we will comply," says CEO Lewis Platt.

Had dinner with some local cypherpunks this evening. Talked about the HP
issue (likely to have one of their reps at the next mtg, maybe in four
weeks). An analogy: a gun that stops firing after a year and requires
government permission to be reactivated. If the manufacturer isn't out of
business by then...

Sure hope this doesn't become the trend,for software in general or
cryptoware in particular.

Put another way, this arguably is more disturbing than Clipper. At least
you know what you're getting then. You may not know 'xactly what your PAT
does.

-Declan