At 5:53 PM -0700 9/18/97, Declan McCullagh wrote:
But wait... The version of SAFE "as is" contains the ***FIRST EVER*** domestic restrictions on encryption! Why should it be passed intact? For the sake of Beltway politicking and deal-cutting?
It includes very, very troubling severe criminal penalties for the use of encryption in a crime. When encryption is in everything from light switches to door knobs, any crime will include crypto, no? It would be like criminalizing "breathing air in the commission of a crime..."
Yes, SAFE is an evil bill. And anyone who supports the "use a cipher, go to prison" language (*) is guilty of a most serious crime. (* Some object to this slogan, saying that crypto use is not actually outlawed. Well, neither were guns outlawed when the billboards went up in California and other states: "Use a gun, go to prison." The meaning is clear.)
Why not just say "stop SAFE altogether?" No new laws are better than bad new laws. And even if the crypto-in-a-crime provisions are yanked, SAFE may be a bad bill. I wrote about this in June:
Indeed, I also condemned it earlier this year. ....
Why are these organizations -- CDT, VTW, Wired, EFF, ATR -- urging it be passed intact, as is? Why should Americans give up their rights so business can make more money on encryption exports?
Because they want to be "players." And to be "players," they feel they have to get in their at the pork barrel and bargain away our rights. Fuck them all. They are all scum. (The ACLU is far from perfect, but I am gaining new respect for their absolutist stance on most civil liberties issues. I am assuming that the ACLU will not support the "speak in Spanish while committing a crime and get an extra 10 years" language? This, by the way, is what the "use a cipher" language is exactly parallel to.) --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: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."