Govt wants to read your e-mail

In case you haven't heard....


"AN ALLIANCE OF 11 SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE
COMPANIES HAS JUST ANNOUNCED ITS FORMATION
TO DEVELOP KEY-RECOVERY SOLUTIONS FOR
ELECTRONIC ENCRYPTION, a crucial component of the
Clinton administration's latest plan to loosen the export of
encryption technology.  Announced yesterday, the administration's
plan gives exporters of encryption or encrypted software a two-
year window starting Jan. 1, 1997, to build what the
administration calls 'key recovery' into their products.  [The
alliance will] develop systems that will give the [U.S.] government
what it wants, which is access to suspicious encrypted messages,
so that compliant software companies will be able to get export
licenses for hard-to-crack encryption codes.  . . .

" 'The fact that 56-bit DES [a type of encryption] will be
available from significant sources is going to jump-start electronic
commerce,' said Ken Kay, executive director of the Computer
Systems Policy Project, a public policy group comprised of 12
computer industry CEOs.  . . .  While Gore directly stated
yesterday that domestic use of encryption will remain
unregulated, the double standard for domestic and international
products might discourage U.S. companies from developing two
different versions, leaving U.S. and Canadian customers with the
same products that the federal government has deemed safe to
ship overseas." ["C/Net" Oct. 2; also covered by "Reuter" and
"Dow Jones"]

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At 9:33 PM -0700 10/8/96, Christian Claborne wrote:
>In case you haven't heard....
>
>
>"AN ALLIANCE OF 11 SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE
>COMPANIES HAS JUST ANNOUNCED ITS FORMATION
>TO DEVELOP KEY-RECOVERY SOLUTIONS FOR
>ELECTRONIC ENCRYPTION, a crucial component of the
>Clinton administration's latest plan to loosen the export of

Avoiding the strong temptation to sarcastically thank you for letting us
know about this, let me make instead a non-sarcastic point:

Those who do not have the time or inclination to read the list and see what
is being discussed should avoid forwarding items to the list, especially if
these items come from news outlets, press releases, and sundry public
announcements.\

The list has enough traffic without people sending "have you seen this?"
things days or weeks after the event has been thoroughly discussed.

--Tim May

"The government announcement is disastrous," said Jim Bidzos,.."We warned IBM
that the National Security Agency would try to twist their technology."
[NYT, 1996-10-02]
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."