Proposal: Another emergency session of Cypherpunks

Summary: Maybe it's time for another emergency session of Cypherpunks
to discuss policy in the aftermath of the double whammy announcements
of Tessera/Clipper II and the new and even more dangerous Digital
Telephony Bill.

After the Clipper announcement last April, we had a special emergency
meeting of Cypherpunks. Heavily attended, lots of discussion.

This time around, we most knew things like Tessera and a new Digital
Telephony Bill were coming, but the actuality of them has now been
made real. 

The "ban on encryption" hasn't yet happened, but more and more
roadblocks (another digital highway stupid metaphor?) are being
erected. For example, any service provider, university network,
hardware maker, etc., who fails to make transmissions "readable" faces
$10,000 a day penalties under my reading of Digital Telephony. This
could make an awful lot of service providers wary of _anything_ that
doesn't look like plain old English chitchat...they may just cancel
the accounts of anyone doing anything "funny." (Yes, there are
probably ways to skirt these reactions, but it means pushing
encryption underground, into tricks using stegonagraphy,
superencryption, and less publicizing of one's PGP keys. Not a good
thing. I agree with Perry Metzger that _public use_ or encryption is
the best approach, practically and morally. Hiding the use of it keeps
it "ghettoized.")

So, I propose that we reorient our next Cypherpunks meeting (Saturday,
March 12th, I presume) to deal with these issues. Some topics:

* Legal overview of the Digital Telephony Bill. If Mike Godwin could
link up with the other D.C.-area folks (Pat Farrell, Paul Ferguson,
etc.), and then have a link to our meeting, this would be ideal.

* When could Digital Telephony become law and what would be the
implications?

* Ditto for Tessera, Capstone, etc.

* Status of Voice-PGP efforts....when will SoundBlaster-type software
be available? What about encrypted IP packets on workstations instead?
(Recall the impressive DES-encrypted conference call the 3 Cypherpunks
groups had at the emergency Clipper meeting last April.)

(I've heard talk--no pun intended--of several "Voice-PGP" projects,
using SoundBlaster hardware, CELP, DSPs, etc., but no software seems
to be available right now. How much longer do we have?)

* How to fight these proposals, or work around them.

It'd also be nice if some of the outlying groups (Cambridge, MA,
Washington, D.C., London, Colorado, Austin) could link up with us at
least briefly. (If we started at noon, California time, that would be
fine for the East Coasters, but 8 or 9 p.m. for the Londoners....does
the London group still meet?)

This is just an idea. Let's discuss it.


--Tim May

-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
tcmay@netcom.com       | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
408-688-5409           | knowledge, reputations, information markets, 
W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA  | black markets, collapse of governments.
Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available.
"National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

On Sat, 26 Feb 1994, Timothy C. May wrote:

> Summary: Maybe it's time for another emergency session of Cypherpunks
> to discuss policy in the aftermath of the double whammy announcements
> of Tessera/Clipper II and the new and even more dangerous Digital
> Telephony Bill.
> 
	I agree, these are very umm, I dont want to be discouraging and a 
downer, but basically they really pissed me off, and makes me wonder what 
the hell makes this nation different from the stereotypical communist 
nation.  ACK, makes me so mad, i mena the nerve of these poeple, oh 
well....what can I do to help?



> 
> It'd also be nice if some of the outlying groups (Cambridge, MA,
> Washington, D.C., London, Colorado, Austin) could link up with us at
> least briefly. (If we started at noon, California time, that would be
> fine for the East Coasters, but 8 or 9 p.m. for the Londoners....does
> the London group still meet?)
>

	how do you propose us here onthe east coast hook up?  I
	would think a virtual meeting would be nice, but dont
	know any of the logistics which such an operation.  I
	personally can't travel, and a the best could uh, make a
	long distance telephone call with my neato boxes.  Is
	there anyone in the Deleware area?  Kinda near D.C. and
	cambridge, but traveling to either of those places would
	be difficult, as in near impossible, unless........

> This is just an idea. Let's discuss it.
> 
> 
> --Tim May
> 
> -- 
> ..........................................................................
> Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
> tcmay@netcom.com       | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
> 408-688-5409           | knowledge, reputations, information markets, 
> W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA  | black markets, collapse of governments.
> Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available.
> "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."
> 

	You're eqipped with a hundred billion nueron brain, that's
	wired and fired, and it's a reality generating device, but
	you've got too do it.  Free youself  ----Tim Leary----

>Summary: Maybe it's time for another emergency session of Cypherpunks
>to discuss policy in the aftermath of the double whammy announcements
>of Tessera/Clipper II and the new and even more dangerous Digital
>Telephony Bill.

Since such a meeting would be only one week before our regular
meeting, and since we had ignorantly but presciently scheduled the
topic to be "Politics", I see no need.

>It'd also be nice if some of the outlying groups (Cambridge, MA,
>Washington, D.C., London, Colorado, Austin) could link up with us at
>least briefly. 

[Background: we did voice-over-IP for the emergency meeting last year
right after clipper came out.]

I'd like to do this again.  Can those who are interested in setting up
this technically contact me directly for coordination?  Also, for
those who did it last time, even if you won't be doing it this time,
I'd like to hear from you.

And if someone can get us an MBONE channel for this, I'd be willing to
carry two or three hours of the meeting on a broadcast-only basis.

>(If we started at noon, California time, that would be
>fine for the East Coasters, but 8 or 9 p.m. for the Londoners....does
>the London group still meet?)

We'll be meeting at the same time, noon on the second Saturday, as we
always do.

Eric

If you were to carry the Cypherpunks meeting over the MBONE, which I assume
you mean, I'd definitely be interested in joining in from San Diego.

Phil