A helluva way to run a country, er, a world

[Jonathan Wienke]

>        (b) As of January 1, 1999, it shall be unlawful for any
>        person to manufacture for sale or distribution within
>        the U.S., distribute within the U.S., sell within the
>        U.S., or import into the U.S., any product that can be
>        used to encrypt communications or electronic
>        information, unless that product:
>
>         (1) includes features, such as key recovery, trusted 
>         third party compatibility or other means, that
>
>          (A) permit immediate decryption upon receipt of
>          decryption information by an authorized party without
>          the knowledge or cooperation of the person using such
>          encryption product; and

Translation:  If I whisper in someone's ear in cyberspace, and I do not
immediately provide a transcript of the conversation to the government, I
am in violation of the law, and subject to whatever penalties it specifies.

>          (B) is either enabled at the time of manufacture,
>          distribution, sale, or import, or may be enabled by the
>          purchase or end user; or

This is stupid.  Do Freeh & Co. really think any self-respecting pedophile
or terrorist is going to use GAKed crypto products, or that if GAK can be
disabled, that people won't disable it?  I predict that this section is
going to quietly disappear from the final version of the bill.

>         (2) can be used only on systems or networks that include
>         features, such as key recovery, trusted third party
>         compatibility or other means, that permit immediate
>         decryption by an authorized party without the knowledge
>         or cooperation of the person using such encryption
>         product.

This is stupid also.  If my ISP uses GAKed crypto protocols, can I use PGP
5.0?  Freeh & Co. can immediately decrypt the packet stream.  Am I jailbait
if all they get is "--------Begin PGP Message--------"?  What about
encrypted .wav stego?

Tim May allegedly said:
>The Anti-Terrorism Act of 1995, though apparently not being used in any
>significant way (yet), would have done some of the same sorts of things. If
>an organization was declared to be a terrorist-supporting organization,
>various sanctions would have applied to those who contributed money or
>certain other types of aid to such organizations. As others have noted, the
>Bureau of Thought Crimes has not yet issued a list of which organizations
>are considered terrorist.
>
>(One of my fondest hopes is that the Cypherpunks group makes this list. I'm
>hoping that enough support of various types provided to freedom fighters in
>the ZOG sections of Palestine will get us on this list. I'm itching for a
>confrontation with the jack-booted thugs, as you may know.)

I'm sure that the opposition to GAK expressed by most posters to the list
will be sufficient without our buying any Russian suitcase nukes for
Hezbollah.  However, I would caution you re provoking a confrontation with
the JBT's.  From a propagandist's perspective, they can smear your
reputation much more easily if you have a history of provocative actions
(like Jim Bell's stink bomb).  If you have never threatened anyone in your
life (even people who richly deserve it) and several armed individuals kick
in your door and you shoot them, you can look much more righteous in the
media than if you are constantly calling for the death of thousands.  OTOH,
if the situation is not avoidable, then "Give me liberty or give me death!"
 (In either case, pass the ammo.)

Jonathan Wienke

What part of "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be
infringed" is too hard to understand? (From 2nd Amendment, U.S. Constitution)

They came for the pedophiles using crypto, and I said nothing, because I am
not a pedophile.  They came for the drug dealers using crypto, and I did
nothing, because I am not involved with drugs.  They came for the
proponents of AP, and I did nothing, because I hoped that political change
could still be effected at the ballot box.  They banned non-GAK crypto, and
I purchased my quota of ammunition, because the Constitution guarantees
freedom of speech, the right to keep and bear arms, and protection against
unreasonable search and seizure.  They came for the users of non-GAKed
crypto, and I became the poster boy of a propaganda campaign denouncing
right-wing cryptolibertarians with guns.

PGP 2.6.2 RSA Key Fingerprint: 7484 2FB7 7588 ACD1  3A8F 778A 7407 2928
DSS/D-H Key Fingerprint: 3312 6597 8258 9A9E D9FA  4878 C245 D245 EAA7 0DCC
Public keys available at pgpkeys.mit.edu. PGP encrypted e-mail preferred.

Get your assault crypto before they ban it!

US/Canadian Windows 95/NT or Mac users:
Get Eudora Light + PGP 5.0 for free at http://www.eudora.com/eudoralight/
Get PGP 5.0 for free at http://bs.mit.edu:8001/pgp-form.html

Non-US PGP 5.0 sources:
http://www.ifi.uio.no/pgp/
http://www.heise.de/ct/pgpCA/download.shtml
ftp://ftp.pca.dfn.de/pub/pgp/V5.0/
ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/pc/win95/pgp
ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/mac/pgp
http://www.shopmiami.com/utopia.hacktic.nl/pub/replay/pub/pgp/pgp50/win/

RSA export-o-matic:
print pack"C*",split/\D+/,`echo "16iII*o\U@{$/=$z;[(pop,pop,unpack"H*",<>
)]}\EsMsKsN0[lN*1lK[d2%Sa2/d0<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<J]dsJxp"|dc`
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