What Clinton's proposal will mean to the Rest of the World

Cypherpunkers,

Having just digested the press release, and the subsequent
followups on sci.crypt and on here, I am beginning to wonder what
ramifications this might have in other countries, specifically the
"Superpowers". Surely setting such a precedent in his own country will
spark off a flurry of activity in places such as the UK, Germany,
France et al, so that they are not "left behind", so-to-speak? 

To be quite honest, I can't see the English government taking such
radical steps about secure telecommunications, quite simply, because
BT have such a lacsidasical [sp?] approach to new and emerging
technologies. Take for instance, IDSN. Their philosophy of marketing
and "selling" ISDN is laughable - I once read a newspaper article 
which related a tale of a Corporation who wanted to learn if ISDN 
could be useful to it's business practices, and it seems that BT 
just kept jostling them between department (Dept X: "Phone Dept Y",
Dept Y: "Phone Dept X" etc). 

Can anyone really see that the US government (or whoever) will
completely outlaw all strong data encryption? This violates the
basic human right of free communications/privacy. 

What a world we live in, huh?

-- 
Rick M. Tait                                Bell Northern Research Europe
Tel: +44-81-945-3352, Fax: +44-81-945-3352     Network Management Systems
<PGP 2.2 public key available on request>       New Southgate, London. UK
email: ricktait@bnr.co.uk  || rt@cix.compulink.co.uk  ||  ricktait@bnr.ca