From: jya@pipeline.com (John Young)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Message Hash: e353bb01feaff274e68f2bf003cf329768bda3cd2eba8602b30ea4a9010f69af
Message ID: <199603041358.IAA23170@pipe1.nyc.pipeline.com>
Reply To: N/A
UTC Datetime: 1996-03-04 14:45:25 UTC
Raw Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 22:45:25 +0800
From: jya@pipeline.com (John Young)
Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 22:45:25 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: NYT on Crypto Bills
Message-ID: <199603041358.IAA23170@pipe1.nyc.pipeline.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
The New York Times, March 4, 1996, p. D4.
Compromise Bills Due on Data Encryption
Industry Opponents and Civil Libertarians Are Lukewarm,
at Best
By John Markoff
Legislation will be introduced in the House and the Senate
tomorrow in an effort to break the deadlock between the
computer industry and the Clinton Administration over the
control and export of software and hardware used to
scramble electronic data.
So far, though, the proposed measures have received only
cautious endorsement from industry executives, while
civil-liberties and privacy groups say they are worried
that the bills would enable the Government to decode
scrambled transmissions.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, and
Representative Bob Goodlatte, Republican of Virginia, plan
to introduce similar bills that affirm the right of
Americans to use any type of data-coding equipment without
restriction and prohibit the mandatory use of special keys
that would allow law-enforcement agencies to read scrambled
data. Their bills would also make it a crime to use
encryption technology in committing a crime and would
permit the export of data-coding software and hardware if
similar technology was available from a foreign supplier.
Data-coding, or encryption, technology is based on
mathematical formulas that rely on the immense computing
challenge inherent in factoring large numbers. Until
recently, such technology was largely used by military and
intelligence organizations and by some corporations like
banks. As electronic mail and commerce have become
increasingly accessible, however, the technology has become
more controversial.
In April 1993, the Clinton Administration proposed a
national data-encryption standard known as Clipper, based
on a system that would have made it possible for
law-enforcement agencies, if authorized by a court, to
decode private voice and data communications.
The Clipper initiative has been strongly opposed by
industry executives and privacy advocates. They argue that
reliable coding technology is essential for commerce and
privacy protection on the Internet. They also say that
strict export rules are increasingly hindering the ability
of United States corporations to compete with foreign
suppliers.
The proposed legislation would ease some current
restrictions on the exporting of data-coding systems, but
civil libertarians still see areas of concern.
"The bills relax export controls, which is clearly a step
in the right direction," conceded Marc Rotenberg, director
of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington
research and policy organization. But the negatives, he
said, were that the bills opened the door to Government
access to private transactions "and criminalize the use of
cryptography when it is used to perpetrate a crime."
Industry officials said they expected the legislation to
stir little enthusiasm from corporate users. "Corporate
America is absolutely unwilling to give a third party
control of their data," said Jim Bidzos, chief executive of
RSA Data Security, a maker of encryption software based in
Redwood City, Calif.
[End]
Return to March 1996
Return to “jya@pipeline.com (John Young)”