At 6:42 PM -0800 5/1/97, Lucky Green wrote:
What the bill punishes with five years in prison is the use of encryption in FURTHERANCE of a crime.
I will demonstrate at the next SF Bay Area Cypherpunks meeting on Saturday May 10, 1997 the use of encryption in furtherance of a crime using only three mouse clicks and three keystrokes. No custom scripts, macros, etc. involved. In fact, I will gladly perform the demonstration on a computer provided by the audience.
That's right folks! Three mouse clicks and three keystrokes will buy you *five* years in the federal penitentiary should SAFE become law as currently written.
[Since this is a controlled demo, no actual crimes will be committed. Do not try this at home! You will be breaking the law.]
I'm looking forward to this demo! Hell, maybe I'll volunteer to actually commit whatever crime is being furthered! The language of SAFE would directly impinge on use of anonymous, chained remailers for many uses. Some use remailers to harass others, a crime in many jurisdictions. Some use it to post or transfer so-called "child porn," a crime in some jurisdictions. (But, I assure you, our local community--implicated in the Salinas so-called "porn ring," use PGP to protect themselves from finks. Under SAFE, these neighbors of mine could be hit with heavier penalties for using crypto in furtherance of their crimes than the supposed crimes involve!) Let's call a spade a spade...cryptography, anonymity, and untraceable digital cash will be used often for criminal purposes. So what else is knew? By the way, speaking of digital cash, think about the obvious implications of the SAFE provisions for untraceable digital cash. Talk about a chilling effect. --Tim May There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 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."