Wiretapping chip

I agree we should write letters, but not (or not just) to government
officials.  Consider targetting the big phone makers -- both domestic 
and overseas.  Let them know our privacy needs as customers -- that 
we want secure encryption, that means encryption with _published 
algorithms_ and without having the key available to _any_ third party,
be it the U.S. or any other government, or any nontrustworthy private 
organization.  I almost agree with Sandy that "we've won", but an important
part of the market process that brings such victory is giving
good customer feedback to communications suppliers.  

Also for consideration: boycott AT&T and all other companies making
phones with the wiretap chip, and let the phone makers know about 
the boycott early and often.

Also I am curious specifically how (a) encrypted international
phone calls and (b) foreign-made phones will fair under this
proposal (or possible follow-on proposals when they see the
weak points in this one).  Can the U.S. government dictate
key registration to the world?

I agree with Perry that "cypherpunks" is a bad label when
these kinds of issues get raised in public, and would also add 
"crypto-anarchy" to that.   Our main "talking point" is privacy, 
and other less popular stuff is best kept -- private.

Nick Szabo					szabo@techbook.com

>Also for consideration: boycott AT&T and all other companies making
>phones with the wiretap chip, and let the phone makers know about 
>the boycott early and often.

Boycotting AT&T overall isn't going to do much economic harm, since
the number of anti-wiretap chips is small in comparison to the number
of long-distance companies.  If you want to hurt them, get them where
it counts.

1.  The AT&T wiretap phone is designed by a division in Greensboro.
Find out everything that this specific division makes.

2. Take this list and in the second column write down all the products
which directly compete with those in the first column; these are the
alternatives.

3. Get Communication Week to give (or sell) you a mailing list of
their subscribers; these folks are already qualified purchasers of
telecom equipment.

4. Send and educational mailing to this list, explaining that if they
support AT&T in wiretapping, that soon they'll be screwed themselves.
Include the list of AT&T products and alternatives and urge people to
voice their frustration by buying from someone else.  They might also
want to send in the sample protest letter you've included.

Now this strategy has a few characteristics I'd like to point out.
First, if no one buys wiretap chips, the wiretap chip doesn't gain
market share, a very important point where compatibility creates
positive feedback loops in the market.  Second, it's selective in it's
targets; the model here is to target one division.  When sales
actually suffer, there is the possibility of getting the division
manager fired for taking an action not in the best interest of the
company.  A shareholder lawsuit might also help here.  If you can
bring down wrath on one manager's head, you will deter others from
following the same strategy.  Third, since this is such a charged
issue, you might be able to get donated mailing lists, ad agency
consults (Jerry Mander comes to mind), etc. free or cheap.  At the
very least, such a campaign doesn't cost a lot (on corporate terms) to
do entirely commercially; CPSR and/or EFF could mount it.

As a second round, target the PBX division of AT&T, since that's where
the next round of chip deployments are.

Eric