Re: broadcast encryption

[tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)]

> 
> > The US is a signatory to the International Telecommunications Union
> > (ITU) treaties that allocate various parts of the radio spectrum for
> > different uses around the world. One of those treaties (or some part
> > of one; I forget which) prohibits the use of encryption to "obscure
> > meaning." 
> 
> So how is it that the satellite companies are allowed to encrypt their
> signals, while individuals are not?  Another example where
> corporations have greater rights than individuals?
> 
> 	--Paul

My recollection is that scrambling/encrypting over the broadcast
spectrum is allowed if the key is provided to the authorities.

(I have no idea how this works, if and how they would take a PGP key,
etc.)

Clearly the satellite scrambling people (who operate from 22,500 miles
out, which makes this story have other interesting ramifications) can
trivially show what they are actually broadcasting, merely be
providing to FCC/WARC/UN/etc. a decoder box.

With the rapid rise in wireless LANs, radiomail, and dozens of other
wireless systems, I'm not sure how any of this ban-on-encryption stuff
is meaningful or enforceable. Compression looks like encryption, and
vice versa. And a thousand different formats make interceptions and
understanding a challenge. (I've heard specifically that wireless LANs
have no restrictions on encryption. Wonder what this means for
Teledesic, which is targetted for computer communication?)

I'm not a ham person (except as Klaus! or Shabbaz), nor am I lawyer.

--Tim May


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