At 2:31 PM -0700 10/22/97, Jeffrey Gold wrote:

For those who thought GAK was merely a local political issue, isolated to those barbarians in the USA, one that they could afford to ignore and morally refuse to address -- Quelle surprise! It's spreading:

Yes, this was reported earlier by others. Fabrice Planchon, a native of France (I believe), discussed it at length. And it is not surprising to any of us who have been following developments, vis-a-vis the OECD, Wasenaar Agreement, and New World Order in general. Nor is it by any stretch the first non-US GAK measures proposed. Cf. the Trusted Third Parties plan in the U.K., the Australian developments, and various measures in the Phillipines, Singapore, Germany, Sweden, and, of course, the People's Republic of China. --Tim May

FRANCE PROPOSES KEY ENCRYPTION LAW

The French government has proposed a law that would mandate a key-recovery system for all encrypted electronic documents, a move that is opposed by the business community and the European Commission. Earlier this month, the European Commission rejected the key-recovery approach to encryption, which some believe would make it easier for competitors to gain access to a company's business secrets. "I do not say this is the best system," says the chief of France's Central Service for the Security of Information Systems. "It is the least bad in trying to find a balance between national-security interests, economic interests and the protection of personal privacy."

(Wall Street Journal 20 Oct 97)

The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^2,976,221 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."