From: "Jim Sewell - KD4CKQ" <jims@Central.KeyWest.MPGN.COM>
Date: Thu, 7 Apr 94 13:32:25 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Letter to the Government
Message-ID: <9404072031.AA20284@Central.KeyWest.MPGN.COM>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


FYI folks,  I just sent this electronically and would like to urge
you to express your feelings to the government officials as well.
Don't copy my letter, express your own thoughts, but please do let
them know how you feel about it even if you disagree with me :)

Jim



Sent electronically to:

 Representative Maria Cantwell, D-Washington - cantwell@eff.org
 Representative Lee Hamilton, D-Indiana      - hamilton@eff.org
      Chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs
 The President of the United States          - president@whitehouse.gov
 The Vice President of the United States     - vice.president@whitehouse.gov
 The Cypherpunk mailing list of Internet     - cypherpunks@toad.com


Greetings,

     I wish to express my concerns about a current issue that has 
drawn a lot of attention from the computing world.  The issue is 
that of encryption and the Clipper chip.  

     We Americans pride ourselves with the freedoms guaranteed us
by the Constitution and it is freedom upon which this entire country 
is  based.  The Clipper chip threatens this freedom in an unprecedented
way.

     I, as a professional computer programmer, am frightened by the
desire of some of our Congress members to eliminate all forms of 
encryption except special government approved devices such as Clipper.

     Although I do not disapprove of the chip, nor of the ability to
break it with the proper search warants, I do disapprove of what the
success of this chip will bring.  If Clipper succeeds then it will
promote the wholesale outlawing of any encryption method.  This will
be undesirable for four reasons:

        1. Right to privacy will be compromised if the citizens
           of the United States can not take steps to keep information
           such as financial transactions and personal data from prying 
           eyes.

        2. By requiring ONE and only one means of encryption you
           would be making it easier for those who wish to do
           harm to decypher our information.  A cryptoanalyist
           would have a much easier time if he is guaranteed to
           know the form of encryption used.

        3. The Clipper chip will do nothing to deter crime.  A
           criminal smart enough to use encryption will be smart
           enough to use a safe code and not stupid enough to use
           the Clipper chip that he knows the governent can decode.
           The gangsters of the early to mid 20th century used 
           nothing that could be called encryption and yet talked 
           freely about taking packages for delivery and erasing 
           people.  The same would be true today.  In fact, there 
           are programs that exist TODAY and are readily available 
           that will hide an encrypted message in an otherwise 
           innocent picture.  This method of hiding information is 
           nearly undetectable.  Considering this, criminals would 
           still use cyphers if they so desired and only law-abiding 
           citizens would be forced to make their private information 
           vulnerable.  

        4. The only thing worse than having no means of privacy is
           to give the people a device they trust implicitly which
           is, in reality, not secure.  Imagine a classified document
           from the millitary that is encrypted by the Clipper chip
           falling into the hands of an enemy who can decrypt it.
           In answer to those who say breaking the Clipper code is
           not practical I'd ask "Why was Clipper designed for non-
           classified information?"  The answer is, of course, that
           Clipper is not secure enough to trust to protect our most 
           sacred documents.

     I want to thank those of you who are working to block the "slaughter" 
of freedom and the elimination of American's rights to use encryption as 
they see fit and to implore anyone whose eyes fall upon this document to 
support it as well.  Thank you for your time and consideration.

                                        Respectfully

                                        Jim Sewell
                                        1209 Virginia Street
                                        Key West, Florida  33040                      
                  
-- 
   Tantalus Inc.        Bringing people together     Jim Sewell-KD4CKQ
2407 N. Roosevelt Blvd.   to have a little fun.  Internet: jims@mpgn.com
Key West, FL  33041                               	  CIS: 71061,1027
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