Freeh did not mention banning existing programs. He did, however, talk about restricting what was distributed, sold, and imported. Even so, it only takes one intrepid staffer to add a word to the bill that would include an "or possessed" clause in it. A "per se" rule against crypto! -Declan On Wed, 3 Sep 1997, Tim May wrote:
As I understand what Freeh said, not even he is talking about banning existing programs. Rather, he's talking about requiring the "capability" be added to Internet programs (presumably browsers, mail programs, etc.). It's obvious that one could use an old word processor, editor, PGP, etc., and then paste the text into the Freeh-approved Internet program. What would the status be of this?
(In other words, it would be a truly draconian move to try to ban all encrypted messages.)