In case you haven't heard.... "AN ALLIANCE OF 11 SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE COMPANIES HAS JUST ANNOUNCED ITS FORMATION TO DEVELOP KEY-RECOVERY SOLUTIONS FOR ELECTRONIC ENCRYPTION, a crucial component of the Clinton administration's latest plan to loosen the export of encryption technology. Announced yesterday, the administration's plan gives exporters of encryption or encrypted software a two- year window starting Jan. 1, 1997, to build what the administration calls 'key recovery' into their products. [The alliance will] develop systems that will give the [U.S.] government what it wants, which is access to suspicious encrypted messages, so that compliant software companies will be able to get export licenses for hard-to-crack encryption codes. . . . " 'The fact that 56-bit DES [a type of encryption] will be available from significant sources is going to jump-start electronic commerce,' said Ken Kay, executive director of the Computer Systems Policy Project, a public policy group comprised of 12 computer industry CEOs. . . . While Gore directly stated yesterday that domestic use of encryption will remain unregulated, the double standard for domestic and international products might discourage U.S. companies from developing two different versions, leaving U.S. and Canadian customers with the same products that the federal government has deemed safe to ship overseas." ["C/Net" Oct. 2; also covered by "Reuter" and "Dow Jones"] ... __o .. -\<, Claborne@CYBERTHOUGHT.com ...(*)/(*)._ Providing thoughts on your computing needs. http://www.CYBERTHOUGHT.com/cyberthought/ PGP Pub Key fingerprint = 7E BF 38 3F 24 A7 D1 B0 54 44 96 AA 10 D0 5D 51 Avail on Pub Key server. PGP-encrypted e-mail welcome! Dreams. They are just a "screen saver" for the brain.