Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> writes:
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), committee chair and chief sponsor of the measure, led the attack, saying Congress must "stop child pornography on the Internet and Internet gambling. These legitimate law enforcement concerns cannot and should not be overlooked or taken lightly."
This is of course an interesting suggestion, since most underage erotica and gambling on the Net aren't encrypted in the first place. It reminds me of one Islamic country where the leaders introduced television by reading the Koran over it, daring critics to attack something that could be used to transmit the word of God. We have much the opposite situation here in the United States, where any new technology is immediately judged by whether it can be used to transmit pictures of naked children, or thwart attempts by law enforcement to stamp them out.
He warned that allowing encryption to be exported would permit child pornographers to use it.
Perhaps by "Child Pornographers," the good Senator means those legally producing erotica in countries where the permissible age is 16 or 17, as opposed to the US-Mandated Official Age of Adulthood and Full Responsibility(tm) of 18. Countries where, of course, would-be child pornographers use only quality American encryption, the population of such nations being so busy pornographing that they have no time to develop strong encryption products of their own.
(At this point, one of the more deaf committee members asked, "Pornography? Are we going to ban pornography?")
A memorable moment, I am sure, comparable to when Senator Hollings attempted to pronounce "Beavis and Butt-Head."
After the vote, advocacy groups tried to put a good face on the devastating loss -- and an expensive defeat it was.
You really can't fight Congress. Ten minutes after you defeat a bill and spend all your resources, it will be back on the floor under another name and the whole thing will start over again. After you defeat that one, you will discover that the text of the measure got passed late one night as an ammendment to something completely unrelated. The government has infinite resources to harp incessantly on anything until they engineer consent for it and get what they want. Resistance is Futile. You will be Assimilated.
"There's another day. We have confidence in the system," said BSA's Robert Holleyman. CDT's Jerry Berman said, "What is encouraging is that unlike the CDA other committees are getting involved."
These two should be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes. On an unrelated note, after posting just ONE message to cypherpunks from my new Zipcon account, my mailbox is beginning to swell with Unsolicited Bulk Email. -- Mike Duvos $ PGP 2.6 Public Key available $ enoch@zipcon.com $ via Finger $