Declan wrote: > Note the draft legislation creates a new federal felony of > willfully using > encryption in the commission of a felony. "No more than five > years" in > prison plus a hefty fine. This seems at first glance to be remarkably > similar to what was in the SAFE bill years ago. Here's a > Politech message > from 1998, before the politechbot.com archives: > http://www.inet-one.com/cypherpunks/dir.98.05.11-98.05.17/msg0 0046.html > > Question: When encryption is omnipresent in everything from wireless > networks to hard drives to SSH clients, might the basic > effect of such a > law be to boost potential maximum prison terms by five years?
According to my reading of the text, the enhanced penalties only come into effect if the person happens to know that encryption is being used in the communication medium. In other words, the enhanced penalties only apply if the person is a past or present reader of the Cypherpunks or similar mailing lists. --Lucky Green
