Boycott "Applied Cryptography" and AT&T and RSA

[Dan Weinstein]

On Wed, 6 Mar 1996 12:58:20 -0800, you wrote:

>Bruce Schnier (Author of applied cryptography) and Matt Blaze (Who
>is a crypto bigwig at at&t) have made it clear that they support
>key escrow. Both have written letters in favor of the new crypto
>law, it creates a key escrow system and also other restricts on
>crypto. The letters are on the CDT homepage and i think were
>posted here.
>
>WHAT THE FUCK??????????????????????????????????????????
>
>EFF, EPIC, VTW and almost everyone else (except for Bizdos at RSA, hmmmm)
>have all come out against this piece of shit. But with these so called
>experts baking it it could pass anyway.
>
>Maybe the ltrs are a forgery? We should ask them, and if this is true, LETS
>SEND THEM A MESSAGE!!!!!!!! SWITCH YOUR PHONE SERVICE AND TELL AT&T WHY!!!
>STOP RECOMMENDING APPLIED CRYPTO (THERE ARE EASIER BOOKS ANYWAY). DEMAND
>THAT THESE PEOPLE STOP GIVING AWAY YOUR RIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
>their addresses are
>       schneier at counterpane.com
>       mab at crypto.com
>       jim at rsa.com

Don't you think you should read the bill prior to condmening those
that support it?

The bill states "Americans should be free to lawfully use whatever
particular encryption techniques, technologies, programs, or products
developed in the marketplace they desire in order to interact
electronically worldwide in a secure private, and confidential
manner;"

The bill gives everyone the right to use whatever publically available
encryption scheme they chose.  The provisions you refer to about key
esrow simply require the escrow agent to be responsible in handling
your key, this provision is to protect those that DICIDE VOLUNTARILY
to escrow keys.  In fact, the escrow agent would be criminally liable
for handing your key over to someone without a court order.  

Your assertion that everyone and his borther has rejected the bill is
simple non-sense.  The VTW and EPIC web pages contain positive, if not
rave reviews of the bill.

 

Dan Weinstein
djw at vplus.com
http://www.vplus.com/~djw
PGP public key is available from my Home Page.
All opinions expressed above are mine.

"I understand by 'freedom of Spirit' something quite definite -
the unconditional will to say No, where it is dangerous to say
No.        
           Friedrich Nietzsche