Re: Exporting cryptographic materials, theory vs. practice

Matt has a good story, and the lesson that he draws, that presently the
average person can't follow the rules, seems valid.  But I don't see the
point of the proposals to replicate his experiment.

Doesn't Matt's experience really show simply that not enough people try
to follow the rules, so the agencies aren't set up yet to make it
easy?  Is it our goal to change this, to get Customs to streamline
their operation so that everyone really does register their crypto
equipment on travels overseas?  It seems to me we are better off with
the present informal system where you can actually use crypto overseas
without worrying much.

I could see a system where you routinely fill out and have your card
stamped when you check your luggage to show that you are carrying crypto.
Then you turn it in when you come back.  This might not be too different
from what you do now when you declare items you are taking out and
bringing back to show they are free of customs duties.  How does this
advance the CP cause?

On Mon, 2 Jan 1995 nobody@rahul.net wrote:
> Doesn't Matt's experience really show simply that not enough people try
> to follow the rules, [...] 
>
> [...]
> 
> I could see a system where you routinely fill out and have your card
> stamped when you check your luggage to show that you are carrying crypto.
> Then you turn it in when you come back.  [...]  How does this
> advance the CP cause?

Exactly so.  Surely we are better off with a system that does not
work.

Furthermore, with the current system, entropy works in our favor.

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We have the right to defend ourselves and our
property, because of the kind of animals that we        James A. Donald
are.  True law derives from this right, not from
the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state.            jamesd@netcom.com