A Pretty Good Story, from The Netly News

*********

http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1617,00.html

The Netly News Network (http://netlynews.com/)
December 8, 1997

A Pretty Good Story
by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)

        Phil Zimmermann had it easy fighting the U.S. government: At
   least everyone else was on his side. Today the legendary cryptographer
   and founder of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is finding that his latest
   adversaries are just as determined but much more diverse.

       Earlier this fall PGP drew fire for releasing PGP 5.5 with a
   so-called "message recovery" feature that a corporation could require
   users to turn on to let the boss read their e-mail. Then, when McAfee
   Associates announced last week it would buy PGP, formerly supportive
   privacy advocates screamed that the company's new owners were part of
   the "Key Recovery Alliance," a group of firms devoted to producing
   data-scrambling software easily snoopable by the government.

        Now the complaining may stop, at least for a while. The
   McAfee-PGP combo, called Network Associates, has dropped out of the
   alliance. "I never would have allowed my own company to join the Key
   Recovery Alliance," Zimmermann told me yesterday. "As soon as I found
   out about McAfee being a member, I tried to do something about it."

[...]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

Well, I guess we can call off the hit on Zimmermann... hehehe.

BTW- Is there any way to create keys on PGP 5.0 besides the Diffe-
Hellman alg.?



>*********
>
>http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1617,00.html
>
>The Netly News Network (http://netlynews.com/)
>December 8, 1997
>
>A Pretty Good Story
>by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)
>
>        Phil Zimmermann had it easy fighting the U.S. government: At
>   least everyone else was on his side. Today the legendary 
cryptographer
>   and founder of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is finding that his 
latest
>   adversaries are just as determined but much more diverse.
>
>       Earlier this fall PGP drew fire for releasing PGP 5.5 with a
>   so-called "message recovery" feature that a corporation could 
require
>   users to turn on to let the boss read their e-mail. Then, when 
McAfee
>   Associates announced last week it would buy PGP, formerly 
supportive
>   privacy advocates screamed that the company's new owners were 
part of
>   the "Key Recovery Alliance," a group of firms devoted to 
producing
>   data-scrambling software easily snoopable by the government.
>
>        Now the complaining may stop, at least for a while. The
>   McAfee-PGP combo, called Network Associates, has dropped out of 
the
>   alliance. "I never would have allowed my own company to join the 
Key
>   Recovery Alliance," Zimmermann told me yesterday. "As soon as I 
found
>   out about McAfee being a member, I tried to do something about 
it."
>
>[...]
>
>
>
>
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.0
Charset: noconv

iQEVAwUBNIx/kseWPtttGqZhAQGrgQf+NdTlJEuT33DSzkycI8I6u2p45G+4FPGP
7jszq1Zsnzs3GT1DLPO0DtYYTH1VVKC06oXFpWGBnnW1JcXeliIabWfmtOC20cuc
SqqgUre7FK0FvDCNrwB2QHUKRWjr2160vsJcqIgpehElJOV67NPBEISPUsbcs9MQ
FoF+yB6IRdz16C1PRRTfdr190veo3G4yQklyIuoNtAgMp+S6YVx03uujquib1pNU
tK5GdPiIRePSdFJT0SXcJXfD++f2Ck3rgSKLZzTVOoXR8B9oNynA4EK2aEQVSRBT
NfOr+wzRaNOyiEFEdeoQW785PR4PhdpPaqvFZr+pBi2GDI4Eb9OBPQ==
=Wdxn
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Clyde Williamson
PGP Public Key found at http://users1.ee.net/clydew/pgp.htm

"My uncle always said that there was more 
than one way to skin a cat....
I guess that explains the fur pants."

Clyde Williamson enscribed thusly:
-- Start of PGP signed section.
> Well, I guess we can call off the hit on Zimmermann... hehehe.

> BTW- Is there any way to create keys on PGP 5.0 besides the Diffe-
> Hellman alg.?

	The fully licensed version or the compile-your-own version (compile
time option) will generate the RSA compatible keys.

	Mike
-- 
 Michael H. Warfield    |  (770) 985-6132   |  mhw@WittsEnd.com
  (The Mad Wizard)      |  (770) 925-8248   |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
  NIC whois:  MHW9      |  An optimist believes we live in the best of all
 PGP Key: 0xDF1DD471    |  possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!

At 4:15 PM -0700 12/8/97, Clyde Williamson wrote:
>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>
>Well, I guess we can call off the hit on Zimmermann... hehehe.
>

I heard it was a "fire and forget" job...can't be recalled. The monies have
already been paid in TrueDigicash (tm) to Cypherspace Escrow (their motto:
"You slay, we pay.")

Besides, it may serve as a reminder to others.


--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."