At 8:08 PM -0700 9/3/97, Brian B. Riley wrote:
On 9/3/97 8:30 PM, Lucky Green (shamrock@netcom.com) passed this wisdom:
[Freeh] There are a number of ways that that could be implemented, but what we believe we need as a minimum is a feature implemented and designed by the manufacturers of the products and services here that will allow law enforcement to have an immediate lawful decryption of the communications in transit or the stored data. That could be done in a mandatory manner. It could be done in an involuntary manner. But the key is that we have the ability. -
... hmmmm, immediate *lawful* decryption ... which implies that they plan to end run the Bill of Rights with some law that permits them to walk in and snoop on the spot ... right now to look at my mail which needs no key, just a teakettle, they at least have to stop somewhere and find a tame judge, which removes at least some of the immediacy.
I urge extreme caution on pushing this 4th/5th/etc. angle about "due process" and "search and seizure" and legal niceties. If Freeh's proposal is passed, I'm sure the _trappings_ of due process and warrants and whatnot, or at least a magistrate's signature, will be implemented. Judges will be found, maybe even special "Surveillance Courts," as with the FISUR process. Building a case against Freeh's proposal on this basis is weak. A much stronger basis for stopping the Freeh nonsense is to strongly assert the First Amendment. Dictating the form that speech must take--escrow--is unconstitutional. Even the weaker form of Freeh's suggestion, that key escrow capabilities be forced into all Internet products, even if the use is "voluntary," seems to lack constitutional support. Could the Federal Trade Commission force all products to have such features? The Consumer Safety Products Commission? I don't know where the authority for mandatory seat belts and air bags is claimed to come from, either. Or helmet laws in various states. Someone else is welcome to spend time researching this. Personally, all such laws are infringements on personal freedom, in my view. I half expect a case will be made that key escrow is a "safety" feature. Freeh's invocation of air bags may have been a clever signal. --Tim May There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- 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: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."