Clinton nixes domestic encryption right

[bennett_t1 at popmail.firn.edu]

Robert Hettinga wrote:

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> Date:         Thu, 3 Jul 1997 17:10:46 -0400
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> From:         "Tom W. Bell" <tbell at CATO.ORG>
> Subject:      Re: Clinton nixes domestic encryption right
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>
> Phill writes:
>
> >Stuart Baker claims that Gore is the main administration supporter of
> GAK.
> >But others have claimed the exact opposite. I suspect that if Gore
> really
> >supported the GAK idea he would do so publically and explicitly, its
> a vote
> >winner.
>
> For what it's worth, I had dinner Monday with two people from Gore's
> office
> and one of Microsoft's officers.  The Gore people consistently
> demanded
> mandatory key escrow, though they seemed willing to allow private
> parties to
> do the job so long as GAK remained an option.  The Microsoft person
> only
> went so far as to offer to always make key escrow a *feature*

"Sir, the government getting your keys *isn't* a bug, it's a feature in
case you have to recover them.  Will the government use them illegally?
No, sir, why would they want to do that?"

> , arguing that
> this would in practice get the administration all the GAK it wants
> because
> almost everyone would want to escrow their private keys.

ROFLMAO.

> The debate unfolded something like this:
>
> Gore people:  "People using really strong encryption will *want* to
> escrow
> their keys.  Otherwise, lost keys will result in irretrievably lost
> data."

And so that gorny geeks at the NSA can read mails relating to a grope in
the store room.

> MS person:  "Oh, sure--especially commerical players.  But you
> underestimate
> the amount of resistance *mandated* escrowing will create.  People
> want to
> *choose* to escrow.  If you let them, they will."

I choose to never escrow my keys.  It's my business, no one elses to
read my mail.

> Gore people:  "Well, if they're going to escrow anyhow, what's the
> problem
> with mandating it?"

> MS person:  "You don't get it.  Our customers care deeply about their
> encryption rights, and we want happy customers.  If the administration
> will
> just back off, it will get what it wants--or, at least, as much as it
> can at
> any rate expect."
>
> It presented a classic case of cultural conflict--in this case,
> political
> cultural confronting commercial culture.

To quote TV's Butt-Head, from Beavis & Butt-head: "Some people are
dumb."

> Tom W. Bell
> -----------
> tbell at cato.org
> Director, Telecommunications and Technology Studies
> The Cato Institute
>
> --- end forwarded text
>
> -----------------
> Robert Hettinga (rah at shipwright.com), Philodox
> e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
> "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
> [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
> experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
> The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/