So, what are we going to do?

Very interesting threads going along in here.  I'm a fairly new 
reader to the list.  In fact, until I started reading WiReD, Cud, EFF, and this 
list, I didn't even know that I had to worry about privacy in cyberspace.  
RE: the folowing
***************************************************************************
This is largely, however, off the topic.  What is important, and a point
on which I think we agree, is that the regulation of strong crypto, or in
your definition, the interference in the marketplace, is unacceptable,
unneeded and nothing more than a calculated attempt to maintain the
status quo of usurpation of individual rights in favor of federal power
and influence.  Even the national security externality falls when one
considers the uselessness of export regulation in the age of digital
communication.
***************************************************************************

	It may be too late for the federal gov't to regulate cryptography. 
The genie is already out of the bottle.  They might legislate it, even 
criminalize it, but private non-clipper crypto is here.  I believe it is 
here to stay.  At least, I'm not giving up _MY_ copy of PGP.  As long as 
I've got a copy, my friends can get copies.  Their friends can get copies 
from them.  Just _HOW_ heavy-handed does the Justice Dept. plan to get? 

	Will they come in at midnight, knocking down doors, shouting 
"we have a search warrant to locate illegal cryptography in your 
possession!" and run off with my equipment?  _That_ could be quite 
embarrassing for crypto users like me, who are _not_ pornographers, 
drug dealers, or terrorrists to show up in court.  What is the prosecuter 
going to tell the judge?  "So far, we've decyphered his secret bar-b-que 
sauce recipie and his grandmothers instructions for making chocolate-chip 
cookies, but we expect to have the plaintext of his letter to his sister 
anytime now."  

	What could I possibly tell the judge?  "I just felt that my own 
data files were my own, and nobody else's, business.  I just thought I 
was entitled to a little privacy."  How would that read in the press? 
Could the government really afford to look that stupid?  (Unless, of 
course, they really _are_.)

<In mail PMARKS@VAX1.UMKC.EDU said:>
> 
> 	Will they come in at midnight, knocking down doors, shouting 
> "we have a search warrant to locate illegal cryptography in your 
> possession!" and run off with my equipment?  

  A friend of mine that repaired computers said he ran across an
  old disk drive that was used in WWII.  The thing had a lever on
  the top that was to be pulled should anyone "burst in" unannounced.
  As a failsafe to protect our secrets the lever was the trigger of
  a mounted .38.  
  
  Are we "good" American citizens going to have to write failsafe boot 
  files that require a special combination of keypresses or it erases 
  the hard disk?  It would be a shame to have to protect our computers 
  from the "thought police" of not Orwell's future, but our present!

  At least opressed countries have governments that break in and take
  your computer and family because they are lowlife dictators and 
  admit it.  Here the same lowlife dictator wannabes do it in the name
  of democracy and justice! (Not that I'd like living elsewhere.)


   Jim

-- 
 Tantalus Inc.          Jim Sewell      Amateur Radio: KD4CKQ
 P.O. Box 2310          Programmer           Internet: jims@mpgn.com
 Key West, FL 33045     C-Unix-PC          Compu$erve: 71061,1027
 (305)293-8100                            PGP via email on request. 
 1K-bit Fingerprint: 8E 14 68 90 37 87 EF B3  C4 CF CD 9A 3E F9 4A 73

"Jim Sewell" says:
>   A friend of mine that repaired computers said he ran across an
>   old disk drive that was used in WWII.

There were no disk drives in WWII. There were barely computers. Hell,
there was barely magnetic audio storage -- on steel wire!

Perry

<In mail Perry E. Metzger said:>
> 
> "Jim Sewell" says:
> >   A friend of mine that repaired computers said he ran across an
> >   old disk drive that was used in WWII.
> 
> There were no disk drives in WWII. There were barely computers. Hell,
> there was barely magnetic audio storage -- on steel wire!

He said "the war", perhaps it was Korean?  To paraphrase McCoy,
"Dammit Jim, I'm a programmer, not a historian!"
  
	Jim

-- 
 Tantalus Inc.          Jim Sewell      Amateur Radio: KD4CKQ
 P.O. Box 2310          Programmer           Internet: jims@mpgn.com
 Key West, FL 33045     C-Unix-PC          Compu$erve: 71061,1027
 (305)293-8100                            PGP via email on request. 
 1K-bit Fingerprint: 8E 14 68 90 37 87 EF B3  C4 CF CD 9A 3E F9 4A 73

"Jim Sewell" writes:
 >   A friend of mine that repaired computers said he ran across an
 >   old disk drive that was used in WWII.  The thing had a lever on
 >   the top that was to be pulled should anyone "burst in" unannounced.
 >   As a failsafe to protect our secrets the lever was the trigger of
 >   a mounted .38.  

Uhh...  uhh...  I think you may want to go back and ask this friend
whether he was *sure* it was a disk drive from WWII.  If so, we need
to go back and re-work some history of computing details.

Then again, there was the Philadelphia Experiment...

--
| GOOD TIME FOR MOVIE - GOING ||| Mike McNally <m5@tivoli.com>       |
| TAKE TWA TO CAIRO.          ||| Tivoli Systems, Austin, TX:        |
|     (actual fortune cookie) ||| "Like A Little Bit of Semi-Heaven" |

PMARKS@vax1.umkc.edu writes:
> 
> 	It may be too late for the federal gov't to regulate cryptography. 
> The genie is already out of the bottle.  They might legislate it, even 
> criminalize it, but private non-clipper crypto is here.  I believe it is 
> here to stay.  At least, I'm not giving up _MY_ copy of PGP.  As long as 
> I've got a copy, my friends can get copies.  Their friends can get copies 
> from them.  Just _HOW_ heavy-handed does the Justice Dept. plan to get? 
> 
> 	Will they come in at midnight, knocking down doors, shouting 
> "we have a search warrant to locate illegal cryptography in your 
> possession!" and run off with my equipment?  _That_ could be quite 
> embarrassing for crypto users like me, who are _not_ pornographers, 
> drug dealers, or terrorrists to show up in court.  What is the prosecuter 
> going to tell the judge?  "So far, we've decyphered his secret bar-b-que 
> sauce recipie and his grandmothers instructions for making chocolate-chip 
> cookies, but we expect to have the plaintext of his letter to his sister 
> anytime now."  

Well, not to stray from the topic either, but that's precisely what
they're planning to do to gun owners. Once they start attacking citizens
on any particular political correctness issue, all others are fair game.

-- 
Dragon