...and thus the government's decision to consider PGP (a privacy mechanism) as "munitions." At first I thought it was outrageous, but it all makes curious sense somehow when you bop yourself on the head the right way, doesn't it? I say we should ensure that as many citizens as possible get ahold of PGP as soon as possible. After all, the NRA would have us believe that it's every citizen's right to "bear arms," so why shouldn't we (especially those who choose not to carry firearms like me) all have whatever sort of weapon we choose to "carry?" That's all for now, excuse me while I go hurl. All this crap really makes me a bit ill, to tell you the truth. I only want the same respect I give to other people, not a lot of static from a bunch of haircuts with sidearms. d2t PS: Keep this in mind the next time you see someone you love patronize a Rambo-style movie or play a game of shoot-'em-up Ninten do - this is where the Bad Guys get their funding, lads.
deltorto@aol.com
Not meaning to be an appologist for law enforcement agencies (some of whom have gone off the deep end, this much is true...) but the purpose of law enforcement agencies is to enforce the laws and protect the populace. If you disagree with what they are doing, change the laws. Most of them are people doing a thankless job that I would never want to have...
While we now look at this classification as "munitions" as somewhat silly, please remember when ITAR was established: 1943. At the time the US was at war, cryptographic devices were _real machines_, computers occupied entire buildings. The government did not decide to classify PGP as munitions, it classified _all_ cryptographic machines and processes as munitions (materials necessary for war) and at the time it was a very easy equivalence to make. There is a very good article about this by Peter Denning (and other crypto-related articles) in the July 1992 issue of Communications of the ACM. Now advanced cryptographic methods are used in private communications and business but the old definitions remain...
I say we should ensure that as many citizens as possible get ahold of PGP as soon as possible.
Definitely. Spread the source. jim
I say we should ensure that as many citizens as possible get ahold of PGP as soon as possible.
Definitely. Spread the source.
But to realy get PGP going (or PEM for that matter) will require wide spread key distribution. It's clear that such distribution mechanisms are not going to arise out of any "respectfull" institutions mostly because of the legal entanglements they present. Perhaps the time has come for "alt.pgp.keyrings". A standard format for postings could allow them to be automatically added to global keyrings at usenet sites everywhere. Several security issues will have to be addressed before this can work. brad
participants (4)
-
Brad Huntting -
deltorto＠aol.com -
mccoy＠ccwf.cc.utexas.edu -
Peter Shipley