Mike Duvos wrote:
P.S. Is anyone worried that the Netherlands seems on the verge of banning PGP? Wasn't this country once a hacker's paradise?
This has been apparent for a while now, with numerous reports that several European countries are far along in adopting Clipper-type systems. Possibly under cooperative arrangements with the USA. As for the Netherlands being a hacker's paradise....recall that telephone and other services are under the control of the "PTT" (Postal, Telegraph, and Telephone monopoly) that's so common in European countries. If they say "no modems may be attached," that's the law. (I don't know the current status, but at one time there were severe restrictions, heavy fees, etc.) Ask the guys at Hactic, De Zwarte Star, and BILWET (Amsterdam Association for the Dissemination of Illegal Science) about the surveillance done on them by the BVD, the Binnenlandse Veilegheids Dienst, the Dutch Internal Security Service. France essentially bans all crypto--enforcement may be another matter (ask SDECE). One of our Norwegian members recently reported on proposed legislation in his country. Britain is taking steps. And what is going on in Germany, with the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), their version of the CIA, asking for and receiving broad new surveillance powes. (And Germany's version of the FBI, the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA), is getting into the wiretap business in a big way.) "Orderly societies" like those in Europe prize order and control over the "cowboy" aspects of America. Just because the American debate over Clipper and Digital Telephony is so loud and angry here in the U.S. is no reason to believe that the same measures are not already being put into place in Europe and parts of Asia. --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."