Trapped behind the Silicon Curtain

[Tim May <tcmay@got.net>]

At 9:36 AM -0800 5/8/97, Bill Stewart wrote:
>>From: "Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law"
>>From: David Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>
>>Subject: IP: Crypto News Flash
>>CyberWire Dispatch // Copyright (c) 1997 // May 1997
>>
>>Jacking in from the "Take My Crypto, Please" port:
>>
>>Washington, DC--A new anti-crypto bill now floating around Washington
>>would place restrictions on the import of strong crypto products into the
>>U.S. and possibly outlaw the use of non-government approved encryption
>>products.
>>
>>During a morning briefing at the Capitol,  Sen. Bob Kerry
>>(D-Neb.), talking about his impending new crypto bill, which he will call
>>the "Secure Public Interest Act" said that the bill WILL include
>>IMPORT restrictions on crypto software.
...

What, no mention of "Child Protection"?

This bill has been floating around D.C. for several weeks, as the
Administration searched for a sponsor, according to some folks I know close
to Ground Zero.

And we've known the Clinton fascists have planned this for several years.
(The Bush fascists would've done the same thing had they been reelected in
'92, too.)

This will place the United States behind a "Silicon Curtain," with ordinary
people forbidden to _import_ increasing amounts of information.
Historically, imports have been restricted under two conditions: first, for
tariff reasons, and, second, for contraband reasons. The imposition of
import restrictions on crypto is clearly of the latter type, which means
that posession of certain types of crypto in the U.S. would be tantamount
to possessing contraband. Hey, if they can't stop cargo planes full of
bales of marijuana from entering, nor shiploads of AK-47s, how can they
stop _bits_?

But they'll try. And as Whit Diffie so accurately characterized things, the
"War on Crypto" will be fought the way the "War on Drugs" has been fought,
by terrifying corporations with the threats of seizure of assets and
massive fines if various War on Drugs measures are not "voluntarily"
adopted. Thus, we can expect to see corporations pressed into service as
unpaid crypto warriors.

It's all part of the New World Order. Don't laugh. Conspiracy theories
aside, it's part of an overall trend to emasculate and disarm obstreprous
citizen-units, all in the name of public safety. Of course, what it really
is about is the natural role for any government to play: to keep itself in
power. Thus, laws are passed by regimes on all sides of the political
spectrum to make dissent and revolution harder for citizen units to mount.

Nothing new here.

The problem cannot be solved politically. Just stay clear of soft targets.

--Tim May

There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
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,
Higher Power: 2^1398269     | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."