From: rcain@netcom.com (Robert Cain)
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 94 00:21:35 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com (cypherpunks)
Subject: Re: The Clipper connection
In-Reply-To: <9402121746.1.14231@cup.portal.com>
Message-ID: <199402150821.AAA28425@netcom9.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


hkhenson@cup.portal.com sez:
> 
>     "We need to implement this encryption method so as to avoid 
> problems we think may be coming.  Trust us!  We promise not to abuse 
> your privacy."  [except for the following--expandable--list of 
> reasons.] 

What if they need it to contain problems at hand, not just coming?
Many in this community kneejerk into "they are wrong" or "they are bad"
without regard to consideration of circumstance.  If you grew up with
the good guys that had a *lot* of power in the face of the bad guys
that had a *lot* of power you might not dismiss the kind of
considerations that were left behind by all that.  I actually remember
and understand why privacy went by the wayside as a very pragmatic
consequence of a battle that was being fought, perhaps in the
imaginations of the adversaries, but with the real potential of no
chance of a defense.

That power and ability over privacy was and is still being abused,
however, by people and agencies with a much more equivocal reason and
right to do so.  I don't think that because of those idiots I want us
to rebound into another form of idiocy quite yet.  Again, I really
dunno but I have a lot of things I want to consider besides rebelion
for its own sake against many abuses of a possibly requisite power.

If this administration has the perspicacity that it has appeared to
have so far then it *must* consider whether the reckless use of means
to shave us of any and all privacy that it has shown is in its best
interest.  The consequence of continued abuse of that power will
ultimately result in their loss of it.  Hell, it is penultimate now.

You should not be fighting the clipper to my thinking.  It need never
carry anything more than occasional public keys or disguise the use of
a better crypdec to work to the ends that folks in this group want.
Think about what clipper can *do* for you rather than what it
prevents.  I am sure somebody up there is aware of this conundrum.
It concerns me.

> 
>     Unlike some in this debate, I do not doubt the sincerity of 
> Dorothy Denning or others like her.  And I would have a lot fewer 
> problems with Clipper/Capstone proposal if the people who will be 
> granting access to the keys and those with legal access to the keys 
> were of Dorothy's caliber. 

I absolutely agree.  It has been her voice, sometimes off key, and only
recently hysterical that has kept me within thinking distance of the
problems that could arise.


Peace,

Bob

-- 
Bob Cain    rcain@netcom.com   408-354-8021


           "I used to be different.  But now I'm the same."


--------------PGP 1.0 or 2.0 public key available on request.------------------