On Tue, 5 May 1998 18:28:46 -0500 (CDT), Xcott Craver wrote:

Again, my point. Padlocks and safes are *not* under the gun, so to speak. People will not see crypto regulation as silly if they keep getting fed bomb and gun analogies. They'd think it was damned silly if they got padlock and safe analogies.

The analogy of crypto = padlock lack something. A padlock can *always* pried open. A court order can always be issued to open it. So Joe Enforcment will be on it's way with it's crowbars, liquid N2, saws and/or torches and do his duty. It will be no loss of time to him. Strong encryption is different. No matter what Joe Enforcment try, the crypto lock won't give away (well, at least, this is what we assume here). Working on it means just one thing: absolute waste of ressources. AFA Joe Enforcement is concerned, a gun has some of the same potentiality: try to force it and you also risk an absolute waste of ressources. From a human standpoint, it might look different, but if you make abstraction of human life (like most dictators do), some of the effects are similar. Ciao jfa Jean-Francois Avon, Pierrefonds (Montreal), Canada Unregistered Firearms in the hands of honest citizens: Liberty's Teeth Strong Cryptographic tools in the hands of honest citizens: Liberty's Voice PGP keys: http://bs.mit.edu:8001/pks-toplev.html PGP ID:C58ADD0D:529645E8205A8A5E F87CC86FAEFEF891 PGP ID:5B51964D:152ACCBCD4A481B0 254011193237822C