From: jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Jan 1996 14:10:11 +0800
To: Thomas Grant Edwards <cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Denning's misleading statements
Message-ID: <m0tg2xB-0008zgC@pacifier.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 10:24 PM 1/26/96 -0500, Thomas Grant Edwards wrote:
>
>I think the big bait-and-switch is her description of the various 
>companies falling over themselves to get to _VOLUNTARY_ key escrow to 
>avoid losing data and protecting themselves against employee problems 
>versus _MANDATORY_GOVERNMENT_ key escrow to ensure that individuals 
>cannot hide information from the government.
>
>Key escrow is good.  Key escrow against your will is bad.

While I understand your point, I sorta hafta disagree.  (or, at least, state 
my reservations.)

If something is technologically IMPOSSIBLE (or, in practice, not available), 
it won't be mandated by government because it can't be.  The moment 
something exists, it can be forced on people.

I'm not saying we should somehow try to prevent people from developing truly 
voluntary key-escrow systems; rather, I'm saying that their existence should 
alert us to the danger.