Re: Coalition letter opposing Oxley amendment -- from Apple to USWest

[Lucky Green <shamrock@cypherpunks.to>]

On Tue, 23 Sep 1997, Declan McCullagh wrote:
> 
> (Then of course there's White's "compromise" language floating around that
> would double these criminal penalties. And Oxley -- in an effort to split
> the coalition -- is circulating draft language that might exempt some forms
> of mundane crypto-devices from his crypto-ban. Who knows? Maybe some
> Congressmen would vote for Oxley II in hopes of staving off Oxley I. But
> all these "compromises" are dangerous.)

Do I understand you correctly in that they are planing to double the
dracoinian 5/10 year proposed penalties to 10/20 years?
 
> Advice to undersigned firms: Tell your lobbyists to block //all//
> encryption legislation that might come out of Congress. Then fire them.
> Spend the millions of dollars on R&D. Get crypto in the hands of the
> grandmothers of America. Or if you're not going to fire your lobbyists, at
> least order them not to try and push a bill through. I know it's difficult;
> that's all they know how to do. But, you see, not only is such a plan
> doomed to fail, it likely will backfire and threaten all of our freedoms in
> the process.

I don't know if I should be happy or sad about Declan's recent tone of
writing. "Forget about working /with/ DC". I certainly never wanted to be
right. There was a time Declan at least hoped that /some/ good might come
out of DC. It doesn't seem he thinks this anymore.

Hell, Declan almost sounds like Tim a year ago. Will he contribute to the
suitcase fund a year from now?

BTW, sponsors wishing to remain anonymous have raised the pot to $820,000.
This is by far the highest I have ever seen it.

 -- Lucky Green <shamrock@cypherpunks.to> PGP encrypted email preferred.
   "Tonga? Where the hell is Tonga? They have Cypherpunks there?"