At 07:52 -0700 9/23/97, Lucky Green wrote:
Do I understand you correctly in that they are planing to double the dracoinian 5/10 year proposed penalties to 10/20 years?
That's correct. That White draft was circulated last week at a crypto coalition meeting that dozens of businesses, lobbyists, and advocacy groups attended. Sadly, I'm told that only the ACLU, Americans for Tax Reform, and (to a similar extent though they were most concened with Bernstein) EFF argued for a hardnosed "no compromise" position. (EPIC would probably have taken the same position, but they were out of town. Eagle Forum also says "no compromise," but they weren't at the meeting.) I spoke to an industry lobbyist yesterday about crypto-in-a-crime. "We don't oppose what the ACLU is doing in trying to get it removed," the lobbyist told me. But this isn't a make-or-break issue for you, is it? "No, it isn't." In other words, they're more than happy to give it up as a trading chit if they can get cash in on relaxed export controls.
I don't know if I should be happy or sad about Declan's recent tone of writing. "Forget about working /with/ DC". I certainly never wanted to be right. There was a time Declan at least hoped that /some/ good might come out of DC. It doesn't seem he thinks this anymore.
I certainly believe there are some duties a federal government should fulfill. On Net-issues, the federal government can do some good by either reversing bad policies or adopting a stance of regulatory forbearance. On copyright, the courts should decide the limits of ISP liability. On crypto, too, the courts are the safest route. On Net-taxes, though, there's a role for Congress to play in considering Cox-Wyden. On telecom, the best way to get bandwidth to the home is by aggressive deregulation, which means more fixes to the just-amended Telecom Act. On content, Congress should of course do nothing except perhaps repeal some of the more censorhappy laws around. Same with Net-gambling. All in all, these issues require minimal action or no action. Especially on encryption: this Congress will never take a pro-crypto approach. The law enforcement lobbyists are simply too strong and too effective. No new laws are better than bad new laws. -Declan