German Official Pleas for Strong Encryption

Reuters (as picked up in today's FINANCIAL TIMES) reports that German
economics minister Gunter Rexrodt called for loosening the restrictions on
strong encryption. Speaking yesterday at a European ministerial conference
on global integration, he said "Users can only protect themselves against
having data manipulated, destroyed, or spied on through the use of strong
encryption procedures."


Hmmm: seems like there's a trend among Certain Global Opinion Makers that
some people -- maybe the financial markets?  -- need good crypto: compare
last week's ECONOMIST and FINANCIAL TIMES editorials.  Anyone know how the
new German legislation deals with encryption?


cheers

.........................................
Donald Weightman
dweightman@radix.net