SAFE Forum--some comments

[Jeff Davis]

Tim sez... 
> And here I'll comment on Ken Bass's excellent comments (there were many
> excellent points). Bass is a D.C.-area lawyer with the prestigious Venable
> law firm (the venerable Venable firm?), and a former Reagan Administration
> official.
> 
> He pointed out that the driving force for crypto policy is probably the
> _law enforcement_ camp, not the _intelligence agency_ camp. And that the
> NSA is regretting the ITAR stuff, as it has sparked an "arms race" to
> develop stronger crypto. Bass noted that people now equate permission to
> export with weakness, and that had the U.S. not restricted exports, users
> probably would've been "fat, dumb, and happy" to keep using breakable
> crypto.

Bass is fun to drink with too.  His web site is under attack and he needs a
hacker if anyone is interested in doing any pro bono community service work.
Bruce's comments on the robustness of foreign, (i.e. unescrowed) encryption
were very enlightening as well.  It was good to see all the old CDT hands, and
the munchies Gilmore bought went quickly at the Godwin table.  Mike makes a
substantial argument that the Supreme Court will not overturn ACLU et. al. v.
Reno, but I wouldn't pretend to speak for him.  And Cindy Cohn is the point 
man in the Super Bowl long range recon team, Bernstein v. DoS.

Defending Bernstein on First Amendment grounds and having judge Patel rule that
for the purposes of the case, source code is speech, is a big deal.  The First
Amendment survives the Electronic Revolution with ACLU v. Reno.  The Super
Bowl is ITAR.  It's nice to have some momentum going in to the Super Bowl.
With robust, uncompromised cryptography, we can reclaim the 4th Amendment
ourselves.  I have a feeling that the congressional support is reaching
critical mass.

Oh yeah, knowing me as you do Tim, it probably doesn't surprise you that the
entire global positioning system is going to roll over at midnight 23 August
1999, and claim it's my 25th birthday, 6 January 1980...

As Barlow says, "You know its gonna get stranger, so let's get on with the
show!"
-- 
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"Jeff Davis is a truly gifted trouble-maker." *email <info at eff.org>*
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