Such was the thrust of my question posed to the Senate hearings via netcast: "Is secret speed protected speech" For if not, then it is a simple matter by extension to require that all communications be in the lingua franca of the listener, obviously preposterous. The respondent seemed to think that 'secret speech' is protected, but obviously there are counterarguments. At 09:59 PM 5/5/97 -0700, Alan Olsen wrote:
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The current line of argument in supporting crypto seems to fall into the "software as speech" (ala First Amendment) or Crypto as munition (and invoking the Second Amendment).
I think of Crypto as "Freedom of Language".
Imagine the uproar that would be caused if Jesse Helms (or one of his ilk) tried to pass a law that all conversations over the net or phone lines had to be in English. (Or at least in a language understood by the cops.) The amount of uproar would be incredible. The courts have already ruled against this form of "language escrow". Such rulings should apply to encrypted communications as well.
Software is just the mechanism for the language of cryptography, it is not the language itself. Just as in spoken languages, special knowledge is needed to understand the "ideas" being communicated. The algorithm is (in part) that language. (But in this case, you are able to speak to only those you intend, not to the world at large.)
Of course, the question is whether this line of reasoning will work under the current regime. Maybe, maybe not. It seems a better argument than the ones I have seen so far... Depends on how far the deck has been stacked against us.
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