From: "Perry E. Metzger" <pmetzger@lehman.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 93 10:47:01 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: YAA (yet another article)
In-Reply-To: <9306161618.AA00319@jazz.hal.com>
Message-ID: <9306161746.AA02809@snark.shearson.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Jason Zions says:
> >* A wiretap led to the arrest and conviction of a "sexually deviant
> >  serial murderer" who had operated in New Jersey and New Mexico.
> 
> As an individual, who would he be talking to via Clipper? His victims? Not
> bloody likely. High-tech protection doesn't fall under the MO of this kind
> of killer.

Look, lets get real here.

Wiretaps ARE an effective mechanism for law enforcement -- no question
about it.

The issue is not the effectiveness of wiretaps. Its the overall effect
on society.

Torture, believe it or not, is a very effective way of police to get
information. Our society bans it. Every mechanism that is useful is
not acceptable.

Stopping crypto to allow wiretaps forces every person in society to
give up their privacy, which probably costs billions of dollars and
thousands of lives, for the sake of only a small amount of money and
lives saved.

Outlawing strong privacy might stop some mafiosi -- but it will allow
others to rake in billions via wirefraud and dozens of other
mechanisms. 

It also likely won't stop the mafiosi and terrorists since they will
get strong cryptosystems anyway for virtually no cost. What do they
care that they are breaking the law?

Perry