Cypherpunks and terrorism

[Howie Goodell]

Nomen Nescio wrote:
> 
The fact is, crypto as we know it is a luxury.  It didn't
even exist ten years ago.  None of the crypto tools we use
did.  We can hardly make a case that banning or restricting
access to them will send us back into the stone age.
>
Please, let's end these spurious arguments that providers of
crypto tools are no different than the people who make the
metal in the airplane wings.
There's a big difference, which anyone with an ounce of
sense can see.
Banning airplanes is not an option.  Banning crypto is.

I disagree.  Ten years ago neither the Web nor e-commerce
existed, either, and ordinary people had barely heard of
email or cell phones.  Their privacy was protected by the
labor and traceability of intercepting paper mail and
tapping analog phones.  Without encryption, every national
government will have technology to effortlessly spy on all
their citizens all the time.  Inevitably, some will use it. 
Saying cryptography is a luxury because it is new is like
saying seat belts are a luxury because horse-drawn carriages
didn't have them.

Howie Goodell  
-- 
Howie Goodell  hgoodell at cs.uml.edu  Pr SW Eng, WearLogic
Sc.D. Cand  HCI Res Grp  CS Dept  U Massachussets Lowell
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/goodell/howie
Dying is soooo 20th-century!   http://www.cryonics.org