"I have in my hand a working message recovery system"

(I've changed the thread name to "I have in my hand a working message
recovery system." Some of you may know what this is a reference to.)

At 12:47 PM -0700 10/27/97, Eli Brandt wrote:
>Declan McCullagh wrote:
>> >From my perch in Washington, I see PGP 5.5/CMR as an existence proof that
>> key recovery can be done. So far the crypto-advocates have been able to
>> wave around the Blaze et al white paper that says we don't know how to do
>> it. Even Dorothy Denning agreed. But now when a mandatory GAK bill goes to
>> the House floor, all Rep. Solomon etc. have to do is wave around a
>> shrinkwrapped copy of PGP and say: "I bought this for $19 at the Egghead
>> shop at 21st and L." Details will be lost in the fearmongering.
>
>Key detail lost: what the white paper says is that we don't know how
>to do it *right*.

Agreed, but this is just the kind of "detail" Congress is already so good
at ignoring.

Declan is right, that Congress will hold PGP 5.5 and its CMR and "Policy
Manager" up and will say, "See, even industry is demanding message
recovery. And here's a program that already does it."

Granted, CMR will not meet FBI requirements for real-time access, and will
not meet SIGIN/COMINT wishes for surveillance-friendly systems, but it's a
start.

I'll bet, as I said in a post a few hours ago, that if CMR is widely
adopted, that various regulatory agencies like the FTC, SEC, OSHA, etc.,
will begin to impose rules about how and where CMR archives are stored....

Then the battle will be 80% over.

--Tim May

The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^2,976,221   | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

the key battles will be waged in the courtrooms after any
laws get passed. frankly, I admit I am stunned with the
seeming ease with which various bad laws get passed. in my
youthful naivete I would have thought that an unconstitutional 
bill, or one with the slightest doubt, wouldn't even be
remotely *considered*. 

but what the last crypto bill 
runaround showed rather shockingly was that it is 
horrifyingly easy for bad bills to make it far into 
the legislative process, and a kind of frankensteinan
process can occur in which a bill ends up being manipulated
far beyond or to the direct opposite of 
its original intentions. moreover, virtually no congressmen
any more care about whether a law is constitutional--
it's a concept that is trampled underfoot in all the lobbying and
powermongering.

hence, I think we need to rely more on the courtroom-- it's
the only "language" that bureacrats understand. extremely 
expensive, but more effective. it forces us to put our money
where our mouths are. "the price of liberty is eternal vigilance"
and a lot of cash as well. the PRZ case proves the public
can support such a campaign. also tactics
as used by Softwar such as the FOIA attack approach. 

I predict that there are going to be major lawsuits of interest
to the cypherpunks in the near future. the telecom industry
is dragging its feet over implementing the orwellian FBI
digital wiretap law, last I heard. this is a big story that
Wired et. al. have not noticed imho. the telecom industry
from what I can tell considers it a bureacratic nightmare and
stalling as much as possible. just wait until it gets to the
point they feel like turning loose their armies of pit-bull
lawyers. these are companies that consider litigation virtually
part of their job description.

so the major GAK lawsuit might go like this. joe sixpack
uses a GAK system but "superencrypts" on top of it. fbi
gets a warrant but cannot read his mail, tries to prosecute
him on "obstruction of justice" or whatever, unrelated to
any actual crime. joe sixpack sues the FBI for violation
of the first amendment rights. it would be a great spectacle.

increasingly I think we should not be so alarmed when
orwellian laws pass. we need to fight them tooth and nail
in the beginning, but in many ways a court victory such as
with the CDA can be far more compelling to the government
bureacrats than lobbying.

and of course there is the "guerilla tactics" that everyone
here is so fond of advocating, which I think have some
appropriateness in some forms. even Gandhi advocated
"widespread civil disobedience"