From: Jonathan Rochkind <jrochkin@cs.oberlin.edu>
Date: Thu, 23 Jun 94 18:33:31 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Get U.S. Representatives to use PGP?
Message-ID: <199406240132.VAA27391@cs.oberlin.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


I just saw a press release somewhere or other on the net which stated
that a number of U.S. Representatives now have email addresses @hr.house.gov.
 
Among other things, the release stated:
>         In addition, constituents who communicate with their
> Representative by electronic mail should be aware that Members will
> sometimes respond to their messages by way of the U.S. Postal Service.
> This  method of reply will help to ensure confidentiality, a concern
> that is of upmost importance to the House of Representatives.
 
What if we could get the Reps to use PGP to solve this problem?
Sure, they _should_ be using clipper chip, to respect the Administration
and all. But the fact is, they couldn't realistically use clipper now,
even if they wanted to. No one else uses it. On the other hand, lots
of people use PGP. 
 
PGP is fully legal now, so the Reps can use it if they want to. Maybe 
we should write up some form letter proseletyzing PGP and send it
to all online Representatives? If we could get even one or two to use it,
it would be major major pro-PGP publicity. It would also be a major
embaressment to Clipper-supporters (ie. the Administration), but we definitely
don't want to mention this in our form letter, as I doubt few Reps want
to blatantly embaress the administration like that. But the fact is, PGP
really _is_ a de facto standard, which is why teh Reps would use it instead
of clipper, and furthermore if we can "trick" (maybe too harsh a word)
a Rep or two into using it, it will just prove the standardness of PGP.
 
What do you think?
It looks like we'd have to snailmail the form letter to them all if we did
it, as their email will only accept stuff from constituents who have
pre-registered their email address by snailmail so as to prove their
constituency.