A. Padgett Peterson P.E. Information Security writes:
Now in the case of extra-National communications, I believe that in certain cases the Nation-state has not only the sovereign right of control but the obligation to control. For example just to pick a popular example, France might negotiate a trade agreement with the USA that included an agreement to block all PGP communications between the two countries. That would be legal.
Padgett, you can't just throw out these pronouncements without supporting arguments. Why would this be legal? Merely because you say so? Where would the US government get the authority to prohibit all PGP communications? If you still insist this is allowed by the "regulate foreign commerce" clause of the US Constitution, you at least need to describe how the USG would attempt to justify it to a court as commerce. Furthermore, since the foreign commerce clause is also the inter-state commerce clause, explain why the government can't use the same argument to prohibit us folks in Georgia from using PGP in our communications with Californians (for example). Or do you believe it can? -- Jeff