Nice article in USAToday, Will!
You might find it useful to note -- and I'm open for correction on
this from anyone -- that the US Government's Bernstein brief is, I believe,
the first time the Govt has openly acknowledged that the export control
issue is all about sigint -- listening to the legal communications of
citizens and officials of other national, allied and friendly.
Repeatedly, in the past, the US Govt. has reduced the public policy
debate to absurdity by claiming that only by severely limiting the strength
of the crypto available to legitimate commercial buyers of American (and
Wassenaar) computer and communications technology could the we safeguard
children, womenfolk, and the home hearth from blood-thirsty terrorists and
ravening pornographers.
_Vin
At 05:06 PM 6/25/99 -0400, Rodger, William wrote:
>All of which begs a question: why has the crypto debate been so >quiet this
year?
>
>Perhaps the govt. is nearing its end game. One highly placed LEA
>source told me he expects crypto liberalization to pass _this year_
>-- in all likelihood something like McCain's PROTECT Act which
>would do away with essentially all controls once the Advanced
>Encryption Standard is done. That, BTW, is supposed to happen no later than
1/1/2002, the bill says flatly.
>
>Of course, Clinton still won't sign it.
>
>For years I thought it would be 2005 or later before we saw the end
>of controls. What's happening now seemed almost impossible just a
>year ago...
>
>My story: http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/ctf452.htm
>
>Will Rodger
>USAToday.com
>
>
--------
"Cryptography is like literacy in the Dark Ages. Infinitely potent,
for good and ill... yet basically an intellectual construct, an idea,
which by its nature will resist efforts to restrict it to bureaucrats
and others who deem only themselves worthy of such Privilege."
_A Thinking Man's Creed for Crypto _vbm
* Vin McLellan + The Privacy Guild + <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *
53 Nichols St., Chelsea, MA 02150 USA <617> 884-5548
