Date: Thu, 24 Apr 1997 18:17:09 -0400 To: fight-censorship-announce@vorlon.mit.edu From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> Subject: FC: Crypto moves forward: Commerce Dept panel and SAFE markup
It also creates new criminal penalties for using encryption to further a criminal act ... Remember that Maryland bill that would criminalize sending "annoying" or "harassing" email? If the Goodlatte bill became law, Marylanders who signed their messages with PGP or telnetted to local ISPs could be slammed with an all-expenses-paid trip to the Federal pen for five years ... In other words, SAFE would turn state misdemeanors into Federal felonies. This is not good.
Ok. So it's kind of bad in this respect, but let's face it ... we can't have everything OUR way, the FIRST time around. Washington politics is just not that way (not that you need such a reminder).
A coalition of groups is sending a letter to Goodlatte tomorrow supporting the bill but expressing concern over the criminalization provision. Interested in signing on? Email David Sobel: sobel@epic.org.
Let's let the legislative process (whatever you think of it) take its course. I'll be happy even if they sneak some screwy secret committee on the final bill, as long as we are not subject to that committee or any other governmental body just because we allow ftp of C source code by our off-shore friends. Ern -- Ernest Hua, Software Sanitation Engineer/Chief Cut And Paste Officer Chromatic Research, 615 Tasman Drive, Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1707 Phone: 408 752-9375, Fax: 408 752-9301, E-Mail: hua@chromatic.com