"Just 15 more days until the NRC report is released...." "Only 12 days until we release the NRC report...." "Since there are only 8 days left, you might want to place your order for the NRC report now..." "Only 7 more days..." Personally, I think we're getting entirely too many update reports on when The Report is coming. Just release the damned thing, so we can reject it forthwith. (If it needs being rejected....) At 3:28 PM 5/25/96, Thaddeus J. Beier wrote:
I asked Peter Neumann, of the NRC commission whose report is due very very soon, and they did indeed get "The Briefing". He was very keen to have all appendices of the final report be public, we may get to see the story there.
I am just on pins and needles waiting for the report. I thought, when it was announced, that in the year-and-a-half that it would take to write that the war would be won. It hasn't, of course. I think that the NRC report will define the landscape of the debate for the next year or so. We'll see.
It's risky for me to even speculate what's in this report, but a look at who's on the panel raises my eyebrows. (Many of the panel members were at the CFP '95, in San Francisco, and listened to public input from a crowd of agitated Cypherpunks and others. From their questions, many of them were clearly skeptical of the views expressed from the floor. Some of them couched their points in terms of that magic code phrase, "the legitimate needs of law enforcement," so draw your own conclusions.) Maybe their report will call for unlimited strength crypto to be freely available to all citizens (as it is now, legally), free export of said crypto (as it not now), no restrictions on digital money, and no mention of "key escrow" whatsoever (as there should not be, as "key escrow" is not an issue for governments to get involved in). Maybe. But color me a bit skeptical, given their inside-the-Beltway focus. And don't forget that Ray Ozzie, the esteemed developer of Lotus Notes (Iris Associates, connected with Lotus, and now IBM), is on the panel. He got all the various briefings, I presume. His response? Don't forget that he announced that Lotus Notes and such products would implement the "40 + 24 Solution," with 24 bits of a 64-bit key given to the government, leaving users with a trivially-crackable 40-bit key. This from one of the most technically-up-to-date members of the panel.... I'm holding my breath.... "Remember, there are only 5 days left until the release of The Report. Set your watches, program your Newtons, and plan your affairs accordingly." --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."