Per various people's requests, I'm only putting this piece on the list. You can get the rest of the newsletter at www.epic.org/alert/ -dave
From the EPIC Alert 2.16
======================================================================= [2] EPIC Files Suit to Obtain Gov't Crypto Report ======================================================================= EPIC filed suit on December 4 against the U.S. Department of Commerce under the Freedom of Information Act to force the release of a survey conducted by the Department on the foreign availability of encryption software. According to Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown the study has been completed and is being held up by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the National Security Agency, the two agencies most strongly pushing the Mandatory Key Escrow (MKE) initiative. Observers believe that the report will confirm the existence of a substantial amount of commercial and free software available from non-U.S. companies worldwide. An ongoing survey conducted by the Software Publishers Association has found over 450 products from 27 countries. Of those products, 179 use the U.S. Data Encryption Standard (DES). The existence of a substantial amount of commercial software overseas cuts against arguments that export controls on encryption software should be maintained. The report was created after Congress decided not to pass legislation last year that would have relaxed export controls on encryption. The legislation would have required the Department of Commerce to complete the foreign availability report by April 1995. Although the legislation was not enacted, the Commerce Department nonetheless agreed to conduct the study. More information on U.S. Cryptography Policy is available at: http://www.epic.org/crypto/ In a related development EPIC Legal Counsel David Sobel appeared before the National Institute of Standards and Technology on December 5th to offer comments on NIST's "Draft Export for Key Escrow Encryption". Sobel blasted the latest proposal for Mandatory Key Escrow (MKE) and said that the administration continues to ignore the interests of the public. EPIC also put forward seven recommendations to reform national cryptography policy. The recommendations follow from a presentation to the National Research Council earlier this year. The EPIC Statement on the NIST standard and the EPIC proposal for cryptography policy is available at: http://www.epic.org/crypto/EPIC_Statement.html _________________________________________________________________________ Subject: EPIC Files Suit to Obtain Crypto... _________________________________________________________________________ David Banisar (Banisar@epic.org) * 202-544-9240 (tel) Electronic Privacy Information Center * 202-547-5482 (fax) 666 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, Suite 301 * HTTP://www.epic.org Washington, DC 20003 * ftp/gopher/wais cpsr.org