Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 15:28:25 -0400 Subject: Anti-Electronic Racketeering Act of 1995 On June 27, Sen. Grassley introduced extensive criminal amendments to the federal racketeering act. S. 974, the "Anti-Electronic Racketeering Act of 1995," would amend U.S. Code sections 18 USC 1961 (criminal RICO statute), 18 USC 1030A (new section on computer crime), 18 USC 2515, 2516 (wiretapping), and 42 USC 2000aa (Privacy Protection Act). This proposed legislation is Very Bad. It would make all encryption software posted to computer networks that are accessible to foreigners illegal *regardless of whether the NSA has classified the software as a munition!!!* Here's the language: "Sec. 1030A. Racketeering-related crimes involving computers "(a) It shall be unlawful-- . . . "(2) to distribute computer software that encodes or encrypts electronic or digital communications to computer networks that the person distributing knows, or reasonably should know, is accessible to foreign nationals and foreign governments, regardless of whether such software has been designated nonexportable." It's much worse than this. Look at the definition of "predicate act": `(b) For purposes of this section, each act of distributing software is considered a separate predicate act. Each instance in which nonexportable software is accessed by a foreign government, an agent of a foreign government, a foreign national, or an agent of a foreign national, shall be considered as a separate predicate act. Now, since the bill also makes 1030A violations "racketeering activities", all you need are two predicate acts and RICO comes into play. Finally, we begin to see the attack on all forms of un-escrowed encryption. The bill provides an affirmable defense of giving the keys to the government ahead of time! `(c) It shall be an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that the software at issue used a universal decoding device or program that was provided to the Department of Justice prior to the distribution.'. There are also some nice surprises related to wiretapping evidence (would allow the gov't. to use the fruits of an illegal wiretap conducted by a third party if the government didn't know about the wiretap) and the Privacy Protection Act. Get a copy of this bill from: ftp://ftp.loc.gov/pub/thomas/c104/s974.is.FTP and read it. --bal