From: solman@MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 29 Jul 94 19:33:03 PDT
To: Graham Toal <gtoal@an-teallach.com>
Subject: Re: "Just say 'No' to key escrow."
In-Reply-To: <199407300000.BAA01331@an-teallach.com>
Message-ID: <9407300232.AA01640@ua.MIT.EDU>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


> Because, as I mentioned before but I don't think people understood the
> significance, Bill Gates is attempting to create a worldwide network
> of about a hundred satellites.  You don't get to do that without
> political assistance, and no way is the USG going to let Bill put those
> birds up unless they control the technology to snoop on the entire net.

This is a relatively inane conspiracy theory. Gates hardly requires any
assistance since the feds were already committed to setting up licenses
in bands that are good for these types of networks. Both the FCC and Hughes
have sped up their efforts towards these systems in recent days.

And the satellite system is not Bill Gates. He is an investor, and a fairly
small one. Gates and McCaw (sp?) gave that venture much more by attaching
their names to it than they did by giving a few of their millions. I seem
to recall Gates' share being 7 megabucks.

> Putting SKE in all microsoft products is doubtless one (though unlikely
> all) of the quid pro quos of getting a licence to put up the sky-based
> comms network.

Jesus people are paranoid. I happen to be of the opinion that A) if escrow
isn't bult into things by the time Chicago, Cairo and Daytona are out it
will be too late and that B) software based escrows are a good thing because
they take the wind out of hardware based encryption efforts and they are
difficult to make mandatory.

JWS