Re: Outlawing the overhearing of conversations

[m5@vail.tivoli.com (Mike McNally)]

smb@research.att.com writes:
 >                                                          Suppose that
 > you run a pay TV service that you genuinely attempt to protect -- that
 > is, you use DES or stronger.  Am I *entitled* to watch for free
 > because I happen to be smart enough and/or rich enough to crack DES?

I had a long e-argument with a strange young man in Canada over this
point, and of course it's familiar to anyone who knows anything about
satellite TV issues.  My own feeling is that if somebody's going to
blast radiation through my property and through my very body, then to
say I have no rightit is illegal for me to interpret the radiation is
absurd.  It's like making it illegal to look at a newspaper shoved in
front of your face by a vendor unless you pay for it.

My understanding is that US law was originally written according to
this philosophy, but that things changed when the cable indu$stry
started to realize that they'd have to either spend money to make
their signals difficult to receive and view, or else spend money
buying dinners for Congressmen to legislate the problem out of
existance.

 > Can I legally or ethically give away or sell recovered keys?

This is a somewhat different question, methinks, and maybe there's a
difference between "give away" and "sell".

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