It is my humble opinion that possession of something physical that the average person does not have the means to manufacture without significant cost is very different from possession of something anyone with high school math/CS skills can create from freely available books. Now, if, next week, someone demonstrates a gun or some other physical offensive weapon easily manufacturable using off the shelf parts at $10 a pop with less than $50 start-up costs (these numbers must include the entire mechanism; in the case of a gun, it would include the bullets). My objection to crypto regulations have nothing to do with rights; it has to do with enforcement. If you have almost no hope of enforcing significant percentages of the violations of a crime law without posting policemen at every PC and workstation, it would seem that the law is pointless. If the behavior is truly undesirable, then other means are required to minimize the negative consequences of that behavior. If you or anyone else really really want to follow up on this line of discussion, please E-Mail me directly, and I will be happy to Cc: anyone else expressing interest; I suspect I will not want to waste net bandwidth debating this because it is largely theoretical. Ern -----Original Message----- From: Jean-Francois Avon [SMTP:jf_avon@citenet.net] Sent: Thursday, June 25, 1998 11:59 AM To: Ernest Hua Cc: Cypherpunks Subject: RE: CIA 4 Nags: Hackers Crypto Y2K Foreigners On Thu, 25 Jun 1998 09:35:40 -0700, Ernest Hua wrote: >I just don't understand how, in 1998, anyone could let Tenet get away >with a claim about key recovery like this. Didn't anyone ask him how he >expected high-tech hackers (especially those possibly aided by foreign >intelligence agencies) to use key recovery? Same thing (gross lies) happens in the "freedom to own and keep arms" context... Ciao jfa Definition: FACISM: n.: a political and economic movement, strongly nationalistic, magnifying the rights of the state as opposed to those of the individual, in which industry, though remaining largely under private ownership, and all administrative political units, are controlled by a strong central government. ------------------------------------------------- "One of the ordinary modes by which tyrants accomplish their purpose, without resistance, is by disarming the people and making it an offense to keep arms". - Joseph Story, U.S. Supreme Court Justice. ------------------------------------------------- the German gun control laws were enacted by the "liberal" Weimar Republic government that preceded Hitler, and were a strong aid to his coming to power -- because they disarmed Hitler's opponents, and Hitler's adherents ignored them -- as criminals have always ignored gun control laws. Disarming the public is a frequent first step toward dictatorships and genocides. Once the disarming is complete, the public is helpless against those who have the guns. ------------------------------------------------- PGP keys: http://bs.mit.edu:8001/pks-toplev.html PGP ID:C58ADD0D:529645E8205A8A5E F87CC86FAEFEF891 PGP ID:5B51964D:152ACCBCD4A481B0 254011193237822C