Jason Zions says:
* A wiretap led to the arrest and conviction of a "sexually deviant serial murderer" who had operated in New Jersey and New Mexico.
As an individual, who would he be talking to via Clipper? His victims? Not bloody likely. High-tech protection doesn't fall under the MO of this kind of killer.
Look, lets get real here. Wiretaps ARE an effective mechanism for law enforcement -- no question about it. The issue is not the effectiveness of wiretaps. Its the overall effect on society. Torture, believe it or not, is a very effective way of police to get information. Our society bans it. Every mechanism that is useful is not acceptable. Stopping crypto to allow wiretaps forces every person in society to give up their privacy, which probably costs billions of dollars and thousands of lives, for the sake of only a small amount of money and lives saved. Outlawing strong privacy might stop some mafiosi -- but it will allow others to rake in billions via wirefraud and dozens of other mechanisms. It also likely won't stop the mafiosi and terrorists since they will get strong cryptosystems anyway for virtually no cost. What do they care that they are breaking the law? Perry