Date: Sun, 24 Jul 94 04:30:20 EDT From: wcs@anchor.ho.att.com (bill.stewart@pleasantonca.ncr.com +1-510-484-6204) Subject: Re: Gore's "new and improved" key escrow proposal
[Software Key Escrow details omitted]
Will they be able to get us to accept this abuse? Maybe. I hope Clipper put a bad enough taste in the public's mouth that they won't get away with it, but a hardware chip is a lot more concrete than "telecommunications software protocol standards" for many people.
I doubt anyone would get you and me to buy this -- but the danger is that Microsoft and company might buy it. That leaves us ok, because we have PGP but my friend Lolly is vulnerable. Given a choice between a cheap public access UNIX system and America OnLine, she chose AOL because it was icon- driven and had a simple-to-learn mailer. I was even tempted to switch because of the off-line mail (flash sessions). The lesson is clear. We who write code have a few weeks (maybe a month or two) in which to write simple-to-learn mailers. Crypto algorithm code or even PGP-phone is far less important than Mac and Windows applications which tie together offline/online mail for various systems (MCIMAIL, ATTMAIL, PAunices, AOL?, ...) with PGP and RIPEM. - Carl