"U.S. Will Modestly Revise Encryption Exports Rule" The Administration will modestly revise controversial export rules for computer encoding technology after a private meeting Wednesday with computer and telecommunications companies, Reinsch said after the hour and a half long meeting. Industry officials argued at the meeting that the draft rules were unclear or unworkable on a number of points. BSA said, "We are not optimistic that these rules will be turned around and we feel going to Congress is our only option." "Industry Gears Up To Oppose Newest Encryption Plan" Opposition is mounting to the newest draft plan floated Mon. by the Administration. One company representative called the plan "policy extortion." Until now, most opposition has come from software industry; some hardware companies are now starting to edge away. One rule appeared to expand types of communications subject to key system, noting that rule said that products referred to text of "encrypted data and communications." That could be interpreted as e-mail. The document showed that law enforcement agencies had the upper hand. ----- EXT_ort