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Re: WaPo on Crypto-Genie Terrorism
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On Sun, 28 Jul 1996, David Sternlight wrote:
> Date: Sun, 28 Jul 1996 12:59:37 -0700
> From: David Sternlight <[email protected]>
> To: Deranged Mutant <[email protected]>, John Young <[email protected]>,
> [email protected]
> Subject: Re: WaPo on Crypto-Genie Terrorism
>
> At 5:55 PM -0700 7/27/96, Deranged Mutant wrote:
> >On 27 Jul 96 at 19:21, John Young wrote:
[stuff skipped]
>
> This, and similar remarks by others, consistently misses the point which I
> have been making for about a year now, and which Director Freeh finally
> made explicit in his testimony last week. That is--the government is
> concerned with mass market software incorporating robust crypto, used
> overseas, and recognizes that they can't keep niche products off the
> market, nor stop bad guys from using crypto the government would just as
> soon they didn't. Since the US has a hammerlock on that mass market, and
> since few would switch products to let the crypto tail wag the features dog
> (no slur intended), ITAR follows.
>
Hrmmm... "is concerned" I can understand, but banning it, or what we do
with it, is definatly against the First Amendment.
>
> Though I've no connection with Freeh, it's interesting that his language is
> almost word for word the same as what I've been using. Do you suppose some
> of his staff reads my stuff?
>
> Until now we haven't seen such an open public admission of what the
> government is concerned about--probably because the State Department
> doesn't like to have an official spokesman admit we're mass monitoring and
> seining foreign traffic since it is an embarassment to the polite fiction
> of diplomatic relations (though I'm sure the truth is that every country
> with the capability does it).
>
yes, I'd say that every country that can does... but what does that have
to do with anything?
>
> >
> >[..]
> >> with wiretapping. Mr. Freeh, testifying at Thursday's hearing in
> >> favor of an optional key escrow plan, noted that the point is not
> >> to prevent all copies of uncrackable code from going abroad -- that's
> >> clearly impossible -- but to prevent such high-level code
> >> from becoming the international standard, with architecture
> >> and transmission channels all unreadable to world
> >> authorities. To software companies and Internet users who
> >
> >So why should criminals bother with using standards if they are
> >readable by authorities?
>
> See above.
>
> >
> >> have been clamoring for the right to encrypt as securely as
> >> possible, Mr. Freeh and others argue, "the genie is not yet
> >> out of the bottle" on "robust," meaning uncrackable,
> >> encryption.
> >
> >Are they going to magically erase all copies of strong software that
> >is already currently available? (Side note: the Pacifica news report
> >on Friday notes that while Freeh gave his testimony, over 100 copies
> >of PGP were downloaded from MIT's site.)
>
> What he's saying is that US-exported copies of the Lotus Lockshens,
> Microsoft Machayas, and Netscape Niguns of the world still do not contain
> robust crypto the USG cannot read.
>
Which they should, I might add.
> >Particularly absent in the WaPo-ed is that many do not trust the
> >authorities (in the US and elsewhere)--particularly the FBI, which
> >has a long history of extra-legal surveillance.
>
> So as Netanyahu says at length we need to build in protections against
> abuses, using both the legislature and the judiciary.
>
Oh, yes oh wise one. We need protections against free speech. The First
Amendment was designed to hurt us. Seig Hiel!
--Deviant
The first version always gets thrown away.
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