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From farber@eff.org Wed Jul 12 16:41:13 1995 Posted-Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 15:28:18 -0400 X-Sender: farber@linc.cis.upenn.edu Message-Id: <v02110184ac29d2a1b404@[130.91.88.102]> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Priority: 1 (Highest) Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 15:28:25 -0400 From: farber@central.cis.upenn.edu (David Farber) Subject: Anti-Electronic Racketeering Act of 1995 Precedence: list To: interesting-people@eff.org (interesting-people mailing list) X-Proccessed-By: mail2list

Date: Wed, 12 Jul 1995 14:00:23 -0400 From: ssteele@eff.org (Shari Steele) Heavy sigh. On June 27, Sen. Grassley introduced extensive criminal amendments to the federal racketeering act. S. 974, the "Anti-Electronic Racketeering Act of 1995," would amend U.S. Code sections 18 USC 1961 (criminal RICO statute), 18 USC 1030A (new section on computer crime), 18 USC 2515, 2516 (wiretapping), and 42 USC 2000aa (Privacy Protection Act). This proposed legislation is Very Bad. It would make all encryption software posted to computer networks that are accessible to foreigners illegal *regardless of whether the NSA has classified the software as a munition!!!* Here's the language: "Sec. 1030A. Racketeering-related crimes involving computers "(a) It shall be unlawful-- . . . "(2) to distribute computer software that encodes or encrypts electronic or digital communications to computer networks that the person distributing knows, or reasonably should know, is accessible to foreign nationals and foreign governments, regardless of whether such software has been designated nonexportable." I'm up to my ears in analyses that need to be written, but I'll send around something more complete when I'm able to pull it together. Shari ------- End of Forwarded Message