Re: Public vs. Private Munitions

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 4:36 AM 7/28/96, Erle Greer wrote:
>At 11:25 AM 7/28/96 -0700, you wrote:
>>At 7:24 PM 7/27/96, Erle Greer wrote:
>>
>>>     Theoretically, the government should only be have the resources to
>>>control commercially-available, public encryption systems.  Who is to stop
>>
>>While I'm not exactly sure what you mean by a "commercially-available,
>>public encryption system," I think your point is incorrect.
>
>I didn't mean that I think that the govt should be allowed to control.  I
>meant that govt would only be able to regulate commercial and/or public
>systems.  They, of course, would have no say in the specs of my
>personally-written cryptosystem.

Your clarification does not improve things. The notion that the "govt would
only be able to regulate commercial and/or public systems" is wrong. (There
may be a very few situations involving product safety, fraud, etc....many
of us disagree with even these interventions, of course.)

Think of it this way: "govt would only be able to regulate commercial
and/or public word processors." The government has no authority to
"regulate" word processors, commercial or otherwise.


>>(My confusion is that a commercially-available system is not necessarily a
>>"public" system, if by public one means public domain. If one means
>>"published specifications," still not the case. Confusing.)
>
>Sorry about the confusion.  Although I may have used the two terms loosely,
>I was trying to contrast commercial and public against something written in
>secret and not offered for govt approval.

The United States government does not receive software submissions "for
govt approval."

I really think you need to look into what the role of the U.S. government
actually is, with regard to programs. (It is always important to remember
that there are no laws whatsover about the types of software individuals or
businesses may use, save for some specific laws about such things as racial
discrimination, sexual harassment, taxes, etc. But no laws about crypto,
word processors, etc. And the government has no "Sofware Approval Office.")

I guess we will have to agree that we are unable to find a common basis for
communication.

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Licensed Ontologist         | black markets, collapse of governments.
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