At 6:44 PM -0800 11/17/96, Lucky Green wrote:
I have a hard time believing that Netscape caved. As I wrote in July, HP was working on selling our children's birthright to obtain an export license for their product. But Netscape participating in this just doesn't sound right.
Indeed, some comments from the usually-vocal Weinstein brothers would be most welcome. (I presume they "won't comment on rumors." After Monday's announcement, I hope we'll hear from the various Netscape people who have commented in the past.) If Netscape is part of this sorry situation, it will mean that Jim Clarke's expression of support for GAK a year ago was the _real_ story, with the "we won't cave" noises just a pacifier. By the way, Netscape once promised that their new corporate position was this: that if the U.S. government insisted on a crippled version for export, the domestic version would not be crippled at all. I for one don't think that having the same smartcard, but with different permissions or approval processes, constitutes having the U.S. version be "uncrippled." (Why? Because if Netscape and others widely deploy the H-P/Intel GAK product, the government could decide any time they want to tighten licensing for U.S. users, for felons, etc.) --Tim May "The government announcement is disastrous," said Jim Bidzos,.."We warned IBM that the National Security Agency would try to twist their technology." [NYT, 1996-10-02] We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."