Summary: Maybe it's time for another emergency session of Cypherpunks to discuss policy in the aftermath of the double whammy announcements of Tessera/Clipper II and the new and even more dangerous Digital Telephony Bill. After the Clipper announcement last April, we had a special emergency meeting of Cypherpunks. Heavily attended, lots of discussion. This time around, we most knew things like Tessera and a new Digital Telephony Bill were coming, but the actuality of them has now been made real. The "ban on encryption" hasn't yet happened, but more and more roadblocks (another digital highway stupid metaphor?) are being erected. For example, any service provider, university network, hardware maker, etc., who fails to make transmissions "readable" faces $10,000 a day penalties under my reading of Digital Telephony. This could make an awful lot of service providers wary of _anything_ that doesn't look like plain old English chitchat...they may just cancel the accounts of anyone doing anything "funny." (Yes, there are probably ways to skirt these reactions, but it means pushing encryption underground, into tricks using stegonagraphy, superencryption, and less publicizing of one's PGP keys. Not a good thing. I agree with Perry Metzger that _public use_ or encryption is the best approach, practically and morally. Hiding the use of it keeps it "ghettoized.") So, I propose that we reorient our next Cypherpunks meeting (Saturday, March 12th, I presume) to deal with these issues. Some topics: * Legal overview of the Digital Telephony Bill. If Mike Godwin could link up with the other D.C.-area folks (Pat Farrell, Paul Ferguson, etc.), and then have a link to our meeting, this would be ideal. * When could Digital Telephony become law and what would be the implications? * Ditto for Tessera, Capstone, etc. * Status of Voice-PGP efforts....when will SoundBlaster-type software be available? What about encrypted IP packets on workstations instead? (Recall the impressive DES-encrypted conference call the 3 Cypherpunks groups had at the emergency Clipper meeting last April.) (I've heard talk--no pun intended--of several "Voice-PGP" projects, using SoundBlaster hardware, CELP, DSPs, etc., but no software seems to be available right now. How much longer do we have?) * How to fight these proposals, or work around them. It'd also be nice if some of the outlying groups (Cambridge, MA, Washington, D.C., London, Colorado, Austin) could link up with us at least briefly. (If we started at noon, California time, that would be fine for the East Coasters, but 8 or 9 p.m. for the Londoners....does the London group still meet?) This is just an idea. Let's discuss it. --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."