CDT Policy Post 2.15 - Legislation Challenges Clinton's Grip on US Crypto Policy
Bob Palacios
editor at cdt.org
Thu May 2 20:59:00 PDT 1996
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The Center for Democracy and Technology /____/ Volume 2, Number 15
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A briefing on public policy issues affecting civil liberties online
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CDT POLICY POST Volume 2, Number 15 May 2, 1996
CONTENTS: (1) New Bill Challenges Clinton's Iron Grip on US Encryption Policy
* Senators Go Online To Discuss Bill, Seek Input from Netizens
* Broad Public Interest/Industry Coalition Announces Support for
Encryption Export Relief, Announces Public Education Campaign
(2) Background on the Encryption Policy Debate
* Why should Internet Users Care About this Issue?
* Pointers to More Information on the Encryption Policy Debate
(3) Subscription Information
(4) About CDT, contacting us
** This document may be redistributed freely with this banner in tact **
Excerpts may be re-posted with permission of <editor at cdt.org>
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(1) NEW EXPORT CONTROL REPEAL BILL CHALLENGES CLINTON ADMINISTRATION'S GRIP ON
US ENCRYPTION POLICY
In a move to replace the Cold War-era regulations on encryption with
policies that make sense for the global Internet, Senators Burns (R-MT),
Dole (R-KS), Leahy (D-VT), Pressler (R-SD), Wyden (D-OR), and others today
introduced legislation to roll back the restrictions prohibiting the export
of strong encryption technology. This historic legislation promises to
inject the debate over privacy and security on the Internet into the 1996
presidential campaign.
The bill, entitled the "Promotion of Commerce On-Line in the Digital Era
(Pro-CODE) Act of 1996", is designed to encourage the widespread
availability of strong, easy-to-use privacy and security technologies for
the Internet. It is similar to a bill introduced in March by Senators Leahy
and Burns, though the new bill does not contain criminal provisions or
provisions imposing liability for third party key holders.
Over 25 public interest organizations, and computer and communications
companies, including Microsoft, Netscape, America Online, EFF, VTW, and
Americans for Tax Reform, expressed support for this effort in a letter
sent today to the sponsors of the bill. A list of signatories and excerpts
of the letter are included below.
Among other things, the "Pro-CODE" would:
* Allow the export of "generally available" or "public domain"
encryption software such as PGP and popular World Wide Web browsers
without requiring NSA authority.
* Allow the export of encryption hardware and software not available in
the "mass market" or "public domain" under an export scheme that would
allow up to roughly DES-strength (i.e., 56 bit key-length) security.
if a product of similar strength is commercially available from a
foreign supplier
* Prohibit the government from imposing mandatory key-escrow encryption
schemes domestically, or from restricting the sale of commercial
encryption products within the United States
* Prohibit the Department of Commerce from imposing government designed
standards for encryption technologies (such as Clipper and Clipper
II).
For more information, including the text of the bill, analysis, and
relevant background materials, visit CDT's Cryptography Policy Issues Page
at (http://www.cdt.org/crypto/).
CDT commends Senators Burns, Dole, Leahy, Wyden, Pressler, and the other
sponsors of this proposal for their efforts to bring strong privacy and
security technologies into the hands of Internet users, and for creating an
opportunity for a national debate on the need to reform US policy towards
encryption. We look forward to working with these and other members of
Congress, the computer and communications industry, public interest groups,
and the Internet Community as the bill makes its way through Congress.
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* SENATORS TO GO ONLINE TO DISCUSS BILLS, TAKE COMMENTS FROM NETIZENS
In an effort to bring the Internet Community into the debate and encourage
members of Congress to work with the Net.community on vital Internet policy
issues, Senator Burns and Senator Leahy will participate in live, online
discussions of the new legislation. CDT and VTW, who are helping to
coordinate these events, will publish the transcripts of the sessions and
encourage Netizens to participate.
Please join Senator Burns live online to discuss the Pro-CODE bill on:
* MONDAY, MAY 6 AT 9:00 PM ET IN AMERICA ONLINE'S NEWS ROOM AUDITORIUM
Note that you will have to join AOL participate in this chat. (If you
aren't currently an AOL member, you can obtain the software by either
a) finding one of those pervasive free floppy disks, or b) by using
ftp to get it from ftp.aol.com (ftp://www.aol.com/)
* MONDAY, MAY 13 AT 9:00 ET AT HotWired's CLUB WIRED
Visit http://www.hotwired.com/ for more information.
Senator Leahy will also conduct sessions on America Online and HotWired in
the next several weeks, dates and times are TBA (visit
http://www.crypto.com for updates)
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* BROAD COALITION OF BUSINESSES, PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS ANNOUNCE SUPPORT FOR
ENCRYPTION EXPORT RELIEF, LAUNCH PUBLIC EDUCATION EFFORT
In a letter sent to Senators Burns (R-MT), Dole (R-KS), Leahy (D-VT),
Pressler (R-SD) Wyden (D-OR), Murray (D-WA) and the other sponsors of the
Pro-CODE proposal, a broad coalition of computer and communications
companies, public interest and privacy organizations across the political
spectrum announced support for legislative efforts to relax encryption
export controls as well as plans to conduct a broad effort to raise public
awareness on the need to reform encryption policy.
The letter states, "Current U.S. Export controls and other regulations on
encryption technologies are stifling electronic commerce on the Internet,
handicapping U.S. industry in the global marketplace, and preventing
computer users from protecting their privacy online."
The full text of the letter is available at CDT's Crypto issues web page
(http://www.cdt.org/crypto/).
Some of the 25 groups joining the effort include the American Bankers
Association, Americans for Tax Reform, America Online, Bellcore, Business
Software Alliance, CDT, Compuserve, EFF, the Institute for Justice, Lotus,
The Media Institute, Microsoft, Netscape, Novell, Oracle Corp., Pacific
Telesis, People for the American Way, Prodigy, Securities Industry
Association, Software Publishers Association, Sybase, the Telecommincations
Industry Association, the Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW), and
others.
The groups also announced a large-scale public education campaign designed
to raise public awareness of the importance of encryption to US
competitiveness and individual privacy, including an "encryption education
day" to be held in California's Silicon Valley in early July. The event
will bring together industry leaders, members of Congress, encryption
experts, and others to discuss the need to reform US encryption policy.
Similar events, to be held throughout the US and on the Net, are also being
planned.
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(2) BACKGROUND ON THE ENCRYPTION POLICY DEBATE
* Why is this issue important to Internet users?
Encryption technologies are the locks and keys of the Information age.
Encryption technology allows vital personal and commercial communications
to travel securely over insecure and inexpensive communications networks
like the Internet.
For far too long, the debate over US encryption policy has been dominated
by the NSA, FBI, and Clinton Administration, who continue to insist that
privacy, security, and the competitive advantage of the US computer and
communications industry must take a back seat to national security and law
enforcement interests.
While encryption products like PGP do allow the most computer-savvy among
us to communicate securely, there are few strong, widely available,
easy-to-use encryption applications available to Internet users. This is
due in part to the Federal regulations which prohibit the export of strong
encryption. As a result of these laws, US companies tend to build only one
version of an encryption product, with relatively weak encryption, in order
to sell to the global market. This results in the limited availability of
strong encryption for domestic Internet users.
Worse, the Clinton Administration has attempted to leverage the desire of
US companies to sell strong encryption overseas to include features in
products that will allow the Federal Government easy access to the plain
text of encrypted communications. The Administration has used the
standards promotion power of the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) to serve the narrow interests of the NSA as compared to
the broader interest of Internet users and US businesses. These
"key-escrow" proposals, known as Clipper and Clipper II, have met with
stiff resistance from civil libertarians, Internet users, and the US
computer and communications industries.
While legitimate law enforcement and national security issues are important
factors in this debate, the need for individual privacy and security for
personal and commercial communications and data is vital to the future of
the Internet and other interactive communications technologies. As a
result, the outcome of this policy debate will have tremendous implications
on your privacy and the future of the Internet.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS ISSUE
For more information on the Encryption Policy Debate, please visit CDT's
encryption policy issues page at
http://www.cdt.org/crypto/
You can also join CDT, VTW, EFF, EPIC, People for the American Way, Wired
Magazine, and others in an online campaign to promote secure communications
online. For more information, visit:
* The Encryption Policy Resource Page -- http://www.crypto.com/
* The Internet Privacy Coalition Page -- http://www.privacy.org/ipc
* EFF's Crypto Page -- http://www.eff.org/
* EPIC's Crypto Page -- http://www.epic.org/crypto
* VTW's Crypto Page -- http://www.vtw.org/
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(4) ABOUT THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY/CONTACTING US
The Center for Democracy and Technology is a non-profit public interest
organization based in Washington, DC. The Center's mission is to develop
and advocate public policies that advance democratic values and
constitutional civil liberties in new computer and communications
technologies.
Contacting us:
General information: info at cdt.org
World Wide Web: URL:http://www.cdt.org/
FTP URL:ftp://ftp.cdt.org/pub/cdt/
Snail Mail: The Center for Democracy and Technology
1634 Eye Street NW * Suite 1100 * Washington, DC 20006
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End Policy Post 2.15 5/2/96
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