CDR: identifying encryption

[Tom Vogt]

Jim Choate wrote:
> > the solution is easy, if you accept a few limitations.
> 
> Yeah, like the elimination of choice and the implimentation of coercion
> through a 'do it my way or hit the highway' attitude.
> 
> Not acceptable.

as I said back then: if it's *my* remailer (or whatever) then I can darn
well set the rules. if you don't like them, use someone else's
resources.

now, on the other hand, looking at things from a practical instead of
ideological POV, almost every encryption used for e-mail shares certain
characteristics, such as having a "block" of characters with little or
no whitespacing, which is *very* different from normal text. the
difference is so obvious that it takes a human a single glance to
distinguish between the two, even if the cleartext is written in a
language he doesn't understand.
requiring that the cleartext follows this convention may limit the
available choices, but it's still a *far* cry from "elimination of
choice". as a matter of fact, I'd challenge you to come up with an
encryption system that does:

a) fail to satisfy the "block of characters" criterium
b) is actually used by anyone for e-mail communications
c) was not specifically designed to make this point