Cryptography banned in the Netherlands....

I have always thought that the Netherlands was a very liberal country.
But now the government is proposing a law that totally outlaws the use
of encryption methods. According to this proposal anyone that wants to
use encryption have to register the keys they use with the government,
thus allowing the government to decrypt anything they want to decrypt.

It is also proposed to totally ban the sales of anything that can be
used to encrypt data. 

Ofcourse this is a blatant violation of civil rights, but to my big
surprise the opposition is not even acting upon it. According to them,
the matter is not interesting!!!! 

It most certainly would not surprise you that this news has really
outraged almost anyone in the computer and telecommunications industry.

But the really sad thing is the procedure. Here in the United States
there is a at least a public discussion about the use of the Clipper
chip. In the Netherlands the government planned to approve this law
before the upcoming elections in the beginning of May '94. Given the
total lack of interest from the opposition it seems that they might
actually succeed with these dirty scheme.

Any comments????

	Mike

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> I have always thought that the Netherlands was a very liberal country.
> But now the government is proposing a law that totally outlaws the use
> of encryption methods.

Actually, these are quite consistent.  Much of the ``liberal'' agenda
relies on government, whether to impose taxes to support welfare, or to
enforce political correctness, or whatever.  But the continued
effectiveness of government (and other large institutions) is threatened
by strong cryptography.

	John E. Kreznar		| Relations among people to be by
	jkreznar@ininx.com	| mutual consent, or not at all.

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>But now the government is proposing a law that totally outlaws the use
>of encryption methods.

>Any comments????

Yes.  Find the coalition that has repeatedly prevented the imposition
of national identity cards, and educate them about cryptography.  It's
much the same issue.

Eric

Mike Schenk writes:
 > It is also proposed to totally ban the sales of anything that can
 > be used to encrypt data. 

Well, there goes the Netherlands as a market for personal computers, I
guess.

(Has anyone mentioned to appropriate local hardware/software firms
that the implications of the above could have severe negative impact
on their bottom lines?)

--
| GOOD TIME FOR MOVIE - GOING ||| Mike McNally <m5@tivoli.com>       |
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