Zimmermann's open letter and Congressional crypto-musing

[declan@well.com (Declan McCullagh)]

Date: Wed, 17 Jul 1996 14:02:05 -0500
To: fight-censorship+@andrew.cmu.edu
From: declan@well.com (Declan McCullagh)
Subject: Zimmermann's open letter and Congressional crypto-musing
Sender: owner-fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu


Phil Zimmermann has an open letter to Congress on ProCODE and HR3011 in
today's "The Hill" newspaper, on page 17. Excerpts follow.

Unfortunately, no matter how wonderful the ProCODE bill may be (and it is),
it isn't going anywhere this year. There's no time left. And in the Senate,
national security interests have strong allies who would move to block the
bill if it suddenly slithered out of committee.

But at least netizens have been able to educate Congress, and the debate is
shifting in our favor. Take Sen. Nunn's cyberscare hearing yesterday, where
Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick cried that "we will have a cyber
equivalent of Pearl Harbor in time." During the hearing, Sen. Carl Levin
(D-Michigan) mused: "Part of the problem is we have competing goals...
Encryption is one way to secure that data. But law enforcement wants access
to that data... It's not just a matter of [strong] encryption. We are torn
between these conflicting goals."

So while the Hill is waking up, American businesses are losing out. By the
time Congress moves on this issue in 1997, it may be too late.

-Declan

---

The Hill, July 17, 1996, page 17

"Democracy in the Information Age"

I urge you to support S.1726, the Burns-Leahy ProCODE bill to lift export
controls on cryptographic software, or Goodlatt's House version of the
bill, H.R. 3011...

...U.S. software makers cannot incorporate good cryptography features into
their products if that results in their inability to export such
products... It also threatens the competitiveness of the entire U.S.
computer industry, as we lose entire systems sales to foreign competitors,
because we cnanot supply systems to our foreign customers if those systems
contain cryptographic components.

Cryptogrpahy has become the most pivotal technology for privacy and civil
liberties in the information age. It is for this reason that I wrote Pretty
Good Privacy, now called PGPmail, and published it for free on the Internet
in 1991...

Privacy is a human right that appeals to everyone across the political
spectrum. It offers a rare combination of moral high ground and political
safety. The onlyway to hold the line on privacy in the information age is
strong cryptography, strong enough to keep out major governments. And
S.1726 is our best home for giving Americans access to this essential tool
of liberty. Let us bequeath to our children a society that lets them
whisper in someone ear, even if the ear is a thousand miles away.

Sincerely,

PHILIP R. ZIMMERMANN
Chairman and Chief Technology Officer
Pretty Good Privacy, Inc.
555 Twin Dolphin Drive, Suite 570
Redwood City, CA 94065
415-631-1747