Is it just me, or has the administration just delivered the knock-out puch?

It seems that by abandoning the Clipper proposal for a software based system they managed to convince key industry groups (and soon the public?) to end their opposition to the fascist key escrow proposal. Cypherpunks, we are in deep trouble.

-- Lucky Green <shamrock@netcom.com> PGP public key by finger

I don't think so. Like others, I thing a stall is a stall...backing off from the Capstone/Skipjack/Tessera/etc. Escrowed Encryption Standard things will delay them while they regroup. (It may also throw a monkeywrench into plans by Mykotronx, National, and others to ramp up production....some more "incentivization" may be needed.) Others here will have a clearer idea than I have, but I don't think a "software standard" is what is now being planned. Software-only solution cannot possibly have the security that's needed (e.g., it's too easy to go in and rewrite the offending portions, diddle with the fields, etc.). And stalling is good. The FBI guy Kallstrom was quoted as saying that Digital Telephony had better be passed soon, because in a year to two it would be too expensive to make mandatory! The longer we monkeywrench these schemes, the more "degrees of freedom" are out there, the more there is just no way to implement either key esrow or centralized wiretapping. --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."