From: David K. Merriman It has been brought up on the Cypherpunks mailing list that Microsoft is proposing to include public-key escrow as a *built-in* "function" of future products - Chicago and Daytona have been specifically mentioned. ...................................................................... .......... No, this is not correct. It was speculation from Tim May on possible developments, based on his interpretation of recent events and on email which I sent to him. This email was referring to the fact that his concerns notwithstanding, it is not an easy thing to implement a privately-held key escrow system into a desktop operating system, that Microsoft is not talking about implementing a 'software Clipper', and is presently only *examining* the international ramifications of software key-escrow and non-escrowed strong encryption security. Please give it this question the benefit of the doubt and postpone your conclusions about this until I can get an official statement, thanks. Blanc