[Rant]Re: Shell buys key escrow system from TIS

[Jim Ray]

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Will Rodger,<rodger at interramp.com>
Washington Bureau Chief of Inter at ctive Week, wrote:

<snips>

>Administration officials didn't return calls for comment, but it's clear
>that the Clinton-Gore team have their first "testbed" for trying out key
>recovery, or key escrow, proposals.

Hmmm.  A new meme, "key recovery" is lots better than "key escrow," but
I still wonder if I'm ever gonna see a journalist say, "'GAK,' or Govt.
Access to Keys for cryptography."

>...The multinational company will self-escrow, that is handle
>all encryption keys itself, in cooperation with the British government,
>sources close to the deal said.

I'm left wondering about a few cooperation-with-the-corporation issues
here regarding the Brit.govt, but I suppose time will tell how much of
Orwell is coming true in his own homeland. 

>Walker declined to name the company, but several Washington-based sources
>confirmed the buyer is Royal Dutch Shell.

Largest corporation in the world, if I'm not mistaken.

>The deal represent the first time that a foreign buyer has purchased a US
>key escrow product  without escrowing keys in the US. ...

[I can hear Gore/Gorelick now, "Well, as long as it goes to SOME big
government (with a road-to-serfdom track record in economic freedom)
it's OK by me!"]

>Walker, widely credited with devising the controversial commerical key
>escrow system now being promoted by the current administration, claimed
>"there really is an important issue here in finding a balance between the
>interest of government and those of industry. ...

I suppose we will hear after the election of the balance between the
interests of government and those of indIVIDUALS. I always see this
image of me, sitting on one end of a see-saw, with former congressman
Rostenkowski on the other end.
JMR

PS Anyone who has had the pleasure of meeting my pal Joey Grasty
would NEVER question his cypherpunk (or U.S.) patriotism.

Regards, Jim Ray -- DNRC Minister of Encryption Advocacy

"It is long past time to end the laughable presumption that voters
 who can easily cope with the choices offered at Burger King are
 somehow 'confused' by more than two choices at the voting booth."
 -- me, in the Miami Herald, June 24, 1996, p. 10A.

 Defeat the Duopoly! Vote "NOTA," not Slick/Dull in November.
 Harry Browne for President. Jo Jorgensen for Vice-president.
 http://www.HarryBrowne96.org/
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