From: Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 1996 06:59:53 +0800
To: "Deranged Mutant" <WlkngOwl@unix.asb.com>
Subject: Re: Would the FTC crack down on snake oil someday?
Message-ID: <199603200310.TAA28716@ix10.ix.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 11:45 PM 3/17/96 +0000, you wrote:
>Enclosed is an excerpt from Edupage. Snake-oil crypto popped into my 
>mind.... I wonder if the FTC (Federal Trade Commission... agency 
>*meant* to crack down on consumer fraud, for non-US readers here) 
>would ever get into act here.
....
>FTC TARGETS INTERNET FRAUD
>The Federal Trade Commission is conducting a "wholesale crackdown" on
>perpetrators of allegedly deceptive marketing schemes that are advertised in
>Internet news groups or on the World Wide Web.

Sure, they'll be happy to, if we really want.  The NSA will advise them
on what's good crypto, and what's snake-oil.  Certainly any system that
didn't provide for back-up key access doesn't rate......

No, I didn't think you wanted that either....

#--
#			Thanks;  Bill
# Bill Stewart, stewarts@ix.netcom.com, +1-415-442-2215 pager 408-787-1281
# "At year's end, however, new government limits on Internet access threatened
# to halt the growth of Internet use.  [...] Government control of news media 
# generally continues to depend on self-censorship to regulate political and
# social content, but the authorities also consistently penalize those who
# exceed the permissable."  - US government statement on China...