Attitude and Assumptions (fwd)

[Jim Choate <ravage@ssz.com>]

Forwarded message:

> Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 18:00:24 -0700
> From: Jon Callas <jon@pgp.com>
> Subject: Attitude and Assumptions

> Crypto is a tool, and nigh any useful tool can be misused. If we let that
> fact stop us from making tools, we'd be using nerf axes and dressing in
> bubble wrap. If we let the fact that bad guys are using our stuff bother us
> too much, we'd be against privacy.

Tis better to let 10 guilty men go free than to imprison a single innocent
man.

> the Red Cross in that the Red Cross gives medical attention to everyone,

The Red Cross is a non-profit organization that supplies support and aid to
both sides. PGP Inc. does not - you don't make tools that crack crypto.
Bad analogy.

> The next thing that bugs me is that the government has us so scared of our
> shadows that we look askance at anything that might make crypto
> mass-market.

Can't say that I am motivated by this particular meme. I am ecstatic that
the company I work for in my day job (Tivoli Inc.) is coming out with a
series of security and crypto related products to be implimented by our
customers on a global enterprise level. None of which support GAK or backdoors.
Now whether our parent company IBM will have the cajones to carry through on
it is another question entirely. Exactly how we are going to sell these
products over-seas does concern me, especialy since our product is used by
many large corporations for enterprise managment in other countries besides
Canada or the US and they regularly use our Courier product to distribute
data across national borders (not to mention some pretty big ponds).

> The sorts who inhabit the nightmares of tech-support
> people are going to take at least one more turn of the wheel of Maya to get
> it.

There are at least 10-12 people at Tivoli tech-support who 'have got it'.

> I think a lot of people here think that blade guards on crypto in any form
> is stark moral evil.

If those blade guards keep me from getting a close shave then they shouldn't
be there.

> I believe that the central thesis of crypto-freedom is that it doesn't
> matter if a document is on paper or in a text file; it doesn't matter if a
> conversation is on the phone or in a restaurant. The medium doesn't matter.
> My papers and effects have the same protection on a disk as on paper itself.

Exactly, it's the message that is protected NOT the media.

> The last thing that really, really bugs me is the hostility that's directed
> towards PGP Inc. because now we're an Inc.

Congratulations and best wishes on your future.


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