clipper and export

[Richard Johnson]

Jonathan Rochkind wrote:
| Is anyone else distrubed by the way that encryption export policy and the
| clipper chip seem to be linked {in administration policy, and in the
| press?
| ... If we need to prevent encryption export for national security
| reasons, as the administration alleges, then that doesn't neccesarily
| have any relation on whether we need to adopt key escrow too.

>From the beginning, it has been clear to me that the whole thing about
crypto export prohibitions enhancing national security is just a smoke
screen.  While there may be a germ of truth to those kinds of statements,
the _real_ reason for propping export controls up when they are no longer
effective, and no longer make sense, is to fragment the worldwide market
and give weakened state-sponsored encryption a window of opportunity to
become a standard.

As such, I'm not upset at how the administration finally is publicly
acknowledging their abuse of export control law for anti-democratic ends.
I'm just upset at their abuse, and consider it highly unethical, even
criminal.

It's ironic that those who are engaging in these unethical, anti-
democratic acts are also asking us to trust them with access to our most
private conversations...


Rich

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