Excerpt of BXA head William Reinsch statement on Goodlatte's SAFEncryption Bill HR 695 on March 20, 1997: The Administration has stated on numerous occasions that we do not support mandatory key escrow and key recovery. Our objective is to enable the development and establishment of a voluntary key management system for public-key based encryption. We believe the Administration's policy is succeeding in bringing key recovery products to the marketplace. Our attention is now turning toward how we can best facilitate the development of the key management infrastructure that will support those products. To that end, we will shortly submit legislation intended to do the following: Expressly confirm the freedom of domestic users to choose any type or strength of encryption. Explicitly state that participation in the key management infrastructure is voluntary. Set forth legal conditions for the release of recovery information to law enforcement officials pursuant to lawful authority and provides liability protection for key recovery agents who have properly released such information. Criminalizes the misuse of keys and the use of encryption to further a crime. Offers, on a voluntary basis, firms that are in the business of providing public cryptography keys the opportunity to obtain government recognition, allowing them to market the trustworthiness implied by government approval. ---------- Full statement: http://jya.com/bxahr695.htm