From: IN%"educom@elanor.oit.unc.edu" 9-JAN-1996 20:19:54.25 To: IN%"edupage@elanor.oit.unc.edu" "EDUCOM Edupage Mailing List" IRS, FBI EYE INTERNET WITH SUSPICION The Clinton administration's reluctance to ease up on export controls for encryption software stems in part from pressure from U.S. law enforcement agencies, and the owner of a New York-based software company sees heavy lobbying behind the government's desire to regulate content on the Internet: "I think the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI are watching this one very carefully. They wouldn't mind seeing the government set a precedent for deciding what can and cannot go on the Internet." The IRS fears that easy access to cheap and sophisticated encryption software will make income- and sales-tax evasion too easy, and the FBI worries about criminal and terrorist plots hatched in cyberspace, but some observers say government control tactics are too little, too late. A Hudson Institute economist says, "Electronic money gets really interesting when you realize how impossible it is to put national walls around it, mandate the use of national currencies, or require that transactions go through banks... The country will have no practical choice but to rely more than ever on voluntary tax compliance. That means tax rates will have to be kept as low as possible on people and on businesses." (Investor's Business Daily 9 Jan 96 B1) [...] EDUPAGE is what you've just finished reading. (Please note that it's "Edupage" and not "EduPage.") To subscribe to Edupage: send a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu and in the body of the message type: subscribe edupage Warren Buffett (assuming that your name is Warren Buffett; if it's not, substitute your own name). ... To cancel, send a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu and in the body of the message type: unsubscribe edupage. (Subscription problems? Send mail to educom@educom.unc.edu.)