I had lunch with Jim Clark today, and explained the furor that was currently going on in cypherpunks and elsewhere. After lunch he sent me the e-mail that I've attached below to pass along. I think the gist of it is that if governments require key escrow, we will have to do it in order to sell our products with encryption into those countries.
The point Netscape seems to miss is that by refusing to go with weak crypto and having the best product on the market, Netscape may be able to force these governments into a position of accepting it. Suppose Netscape took the position that it was 512 bit RSA, and that it was for sale to anyone who wanted to buy it? The result would either be a billion dollars of market impact and a collapse of the high-tech stock bubble we are now building, or the government backing down. If the US government backed down, and Netscape became the best product around and maintained that lead for a long time, other countries would either have to allow Netscape in, or suffer the consequences of falling behind in the IT curve. The right move for Netscape is to improve crypto-security, to refuse to give in to government, and to publicly vilify the people in government who stand in their way. When billions of dollars are at stake and the blame is placed squarely on the shoulders of a politician trying to claim economic improvements based on their policies, the politician is likely to yield. -> See: Info-Sec Heaven at URL http://all.net/ Management Analytics - 216-686-0090 - PO Box 1480, Hudson, OH 44236