(Perry Metzger forwarded my message this morning to the Cypherpunks list on the latest White House proposal....I should've also sent it to the Extropians list myself, my vacation from the list notwithstanding. Some things are just too important!) The latest White House proposal to authorize a certain form of encryption, called "Clipper Chip," (a bizarre name, which also conflicts with the "Clipper" processor made by Intergraph), represents the reification of all the "key registration" themes discussed for many months on sci.crypt and elsewhere. I urge those on the Extropians list who are interested in preserving their dwindling freedoms in these Beknighted States of America to: 1. Follow the debate on sci.crypt and elsewhere. Hal Finney just mentioned the various places the White House announcement was posted. 2. Subscribe to the Cypherpunks list by sending a message to "cypherpunks-request@toad.com". The latest "Wired," which I have not yet seen myself, apparently has some good stuff on our group. (I reviewed Levy's article for him, but haven't seen the mag on the newsstands yet.) 3. Get your PGP and MacPGP before "the other shoe drops." The "other shoe" may be legal moves by RSA Data Security and others (Commerce? Justice?) to crack down on PGP...rumblings of this have been heard for months now, and were discussed at the last physical Cypherpunks meeting. (And the steganographic aspects--the hiding of the mere _existence_ of an encrypted message--will probably assume a greater importance than before.) 4. The Boston area just had its first physical Cypherpunks meeting, with Julf intending to attend (J. Helsingius, operator of the Finnish anonymous remailer)....I haven't heard the outcome. The U.K has had one for several months, and of course the Bay Area has had one since before there was even a mailing list. The Southern California area has several leading Cypherpunks (Hal Finney, Phil Karn, Eli Brandt, others) and wants to host a meeting of "the Cypherpunks." Instead, and in light of the serious danger that encryption will soon have limits placed on it, I would urge them to *just begin their own meeting* ASAP! (Sorry to sound so urgent, but they need to start meeting long before we can arrange a meeting in San Diego or LA.) (One thing we talked about at the 4-10-93 meeting in Mountain View, CA, was a conference call linking up some of the "satellite Cypherpunks." Not secure, of course, but then neither is this list nor our physical meetings...anybody can attend, can get added to the list, etc.) 5. Prof. Denning has more to say about key escrow and registration in the latest (or very recent) "Communications of the ACM," which should be available in large university libraries. Now that the proposal has become real, it takes on more meaning. 6. It is clear that the "trial balloon" I cited in my message many months back to sci.crypt is nauseatingly real. Under the guise of stopping "drug dealers, terrorists, and child pornographers," we will see limits placed on our ability to communicate privately. I have few hopes that this proposal will be overturned by the courts, including the Supreme Court. A "garrison state" like the U.S. is turning itself into, what with the War on (Some) Drugs, the no-knock raids on suspects, the civil forfeiture laws, and the attacks on "whacko Waco religious cults," has need of Nazi-like police powers. It seems ironic, and appropriate, that this White House announcement came on the 50th anniversary of the discovery of LSD...April 16th, 1943. As I said six months ago, "Be afraid, be very afraid." As Phil Karn put it, the battle is joined. -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: 2^756839 | Public Key: MailSafe and PGP available.