At 10:36 AM -0800 1/15/98, James A. Donald wrote:
Secondly, PGP simply is not being adopted by the masses. Of course right now, two weeks after release, Crypto Kong is not being adopted by the masses either, but with very little identity management, it is far easier for the masses to use.
If you try and shove that identity stuff onto people they will not do it. Too much like hard work. They will happily let the government licensed authorities do it for them. The PGP model clearly has not flown yet, and it is not going to fly.
James Donald needs to be arrested. Or at least be threatened with prosecution. I am persuaded that a big, big reason for PGP's success was the threatened, looming prosecution of Phil Zimmemann by forces of the Evil Empire. The many news stories, favorable magazine profiles, and general publicity all caused PGP to be adopted as a kind of "Blue Ribbon Campaign" (a la the CDA). The fact is that most people don't see the need to either secure their messages against eavesdroppers or to sign their messages. But PGP was "cool" and rode the same wave that "Wired" rode. The recent corporatization of PGP, with the mandatory voluntary inclusion of key recovery features in 5.5, and the purchase of PGP, Inc. by Network Associates all signal big changes in this "little guy" image. How successful PGP will be in the future depends on a bunch of factors, but the "coolness" factor has certainly disappeared almost completely. If James Donald wants some similar publicity for Donkey Kong, er, Crypto Kong, then he'll have to arrange some similar publicity stunts. Otherwise it will languish in obscurity. --Tim May The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^2,976,221 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."