Re: So, what crypto legislation (if any) is necessary?

[liberty@gate.net (Jim Ray)]

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Tim May wrote:

[...]

>> However, what if Joe is _also_ one's
>> lawyer? Does attorney-client privilege apply here? Perhaps....

and Professor Froomkin responded:

>NO IT DOES NOT.  Basic rule of thumb: your lawyer can't be used to hide 
>papers someone else can't hide.  Ok, at the margin it gets tricky, but 
>bascially the privilege is not going to stretch to your key.

Professor Froomkin is right (IMO) but I think that the way he puts
this understates the size of the margin when it comes to cryptokeys.

If I were a US Attorney, I would bide my time and pick a hard case,
involving lots of potentially incriminating (and therefore tempting)
encrypted files, an available key, and (at least) two horsemen. The
unavailability of the key can then be presented as a "technicality,"
allowing a bad guy to possibly get off. After I get some precedent
it can then be streched over those inconvenient provisions in the
Bill of Rights. This is how "hard cases make bad law."

>> solution is also fully legal at this time: use only offshore key storage. >> A
>> U.S. subpoena to Vince's Offshore Key Repository will carry no weight in
>> Anguilla. (Can I be compelled to ask Vince to send my key? Sure. But Vince
>> and I could have a stipulation that such "duress requests" will not be
>> honored, no matter how loudly I squawk.)
>
>An interesting issue, likely to be addressed in future judicial 
>assistence treaties...

I agree, but if I were sitting at Anguilla's side of the table (I
won't be, and I have no idea what they will do) this point would
be a *very* expensive one. Anguilla and other tax-haven countries
have little to gain and much to lose by becoming less friendly to
the financial privacy of the Vince Cates of this world.
JMR

Regards, Jim Ray <liberty@gate.net>

"Isn't it true that the exponential and incredible growth of the
 Internet came about because the government kept their hands off
 of it?" -- Judge Stewart Dalzell.
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