In his UN speech this morning, Clinton talked about cracking down on nuke and missile proliferation, and he also mentioned eliminating cold-war-era restrictions which are harming American business. Let's put together a message to president@whitehouse.gov and vice-president@whitehouse.gov (since Gore is the info-highway guru) stating our position. Points we should make: (please modify and add to this list) * Crypto export restrictions are among the most obsolete and oppressive of these restrictions. * Americans can be jailed for exporting software which is widely used throughout the world (e.g. DES), and which in many cases was even developed outside the U.S. * These restrictions have already hurt American software companies. * They will prevent America from taking the lead in many crucial information technologies. * They will leave American companies vulnerable to industrial espionage. And our position on Clipper: * Clipper should not be established as a mandatory standard for the general public or for business. * Alternatives to Clipper should not be restricted. * Telecommunications companies should not be coerced into using Clipper. * Clipper chips should not have any special export status due to the fact that we keep the keys. This would put American makers of crypto hardware at a serious disadvantage in the world market. * Clipper should be reserved for its stated purpose - protection of non-classified information within the Federal government. * Use outside the government should be purely voluntary. * The whole concept of key escrow needs serious public examination. While the government may have the right, with a warrant, to knock down your door, key escrow is equivalent to requiring every citizen to give the police a copy of his or her key. This is a major departure from the status quo, not a continuation of it. --- MikeIngle@delphi.com P.S. It could be worse. Remember Clipper was a Bush administration plan. Bush was a former CIA head. He also had a dictatorial attitude and felt no need to justify his actions to anyone. Bush would probably have tried to ban crypto outright as soon as Clipper was ready.