In a message dated 96-03-15 02:56:56 EST, Jim Bell cites Deranged Mutant:

And if you recall the requirements the government wanted to put on telephones equipped with Clipper, one thing they eventually admitted was that they were insisting that such phones be designed to be inoperable with a telephone that had its "key-escrow" not "enabled". And they still wanted to call it "voluntary! That's a laugh!

...

Of course that depends how you give your key to an escrow agent. If it's already escrowed when you buy a phone, for instance...

That's the real danger with any such legislation. Individuals can generally

only get things that are manufactured for sale. (You can't buy a car with a

7-cylinder engine, for instance...) If manufacturers are dissuaded from building a good crypto telephone, then key-escrow can be as "voluntary" as you want and you still won't be able to exercise your rights.

Of course, you could always hack up a direct-dial version of PGPfone or Nautilus to turn your multimedia computer into a crypto phone... Jonathan Wienke