Web TV with 128b exported

Bill Stewart bill.stewart at pobox.com
Fri Oct 9 01:31:19 PDT 1998



At 02:39 PM 10/7/98 -0500, Steve Bryan wrote:
> David Honig wrote:
> > I'd guess that the Export control puppets know that the Web-TV hubs will
> > be subpoena-able by the US even in these other "sovereign" nations.
> > The WebTV centralized infrastructure makes this easy.
>
> This announcement seems to be getting a lot of this sort of reaction but I
> don't see quite why the news is greeted with such animosity.  If a duly
> authorized search warrant is required in order to obtain information that
> represents a potential world of difference from having unrestricted ability
> to monitor all communications.

Who would you execute the search warrant _on_?  The web site and the
browser user?  (Then why not let Netscape and IE export 128-bit?)
Or some third party who has access to something in the middle
(and may not be picky about search warrants, and may not have as much
standing to resist a court order or subpoena) ?
Or is the WebTV 128-bit code crippleware, using some backdoor key
or other hole for police to break in?

Basically, it just sounds fishy.


				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, bill.stewart at pobox.com
PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF  3C85 B884 0ABE 4639






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