I agree with the points Jon Lasser makes, whether or not we have the same political point of view. At 8:37 PM 10/9/95, Jon Lasser wrote:

I'm not a libertarian, or an anarcho-capitalist. I do, however, support rapid deployment, without restrictions, of strong crypto. Here's why:

(1) It is impossible to stop these technologies; someone on the list recently reminded us that a bright fourteen year old could reproduce the basic functionality of PGP in a brief period of time. The mathematics of, say, RSA, are fairly basic. I think it's unreasonable to outlaw multiplication of prime numbers, don't you?

I agree with this, but we have to be careful. Consider this parallel: "It is impossible to stop people from having high-power sniper rifles. Anyone can shoot people from afar with relative safety. I think it's unreasonable to outlaw use of high power rifles for assassinations, don't you." (I'm not making an argument for gun control, just citing a parallel--one of many I can think of--where just because something is easy to circumvent does not mean that it shouldn't be outlawed.)

(2) While these technologies allow people to violate the law, I have enough faith in humanity to believe that civilization won't collapse as a result. There have always been criminals, and there have always been revolutionaries. Only recently has "The State" been able to supress these forces without maintaining a physical presence. Crypto merely returns us to that default.

Agreed. Although it does allow certain new markets to be efficiently developed that could not develop otherwise.

(3) These technologies also allow honest, law-abiding citizens to protect themselves from criminals, both within and outside the government. Industrial espionage can be defeated through strong crypto, for example. J. Edgar Hoover would have been powerless to harass Martin Luther King, jr. had MLK had access to strong crypto.

This is a good point to stress. --Tim May Views here are not the views of my Internet Service Provider or Government. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."