From: "Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net>
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 1997 17:32:42 -0800 (PST)
To: Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>
Subject: Re: Analysis of proposed UK ban on use of non-escrowed crypto.
In-Reply-To: <199704020022.QAA24113@fat.doobie.com>
Message-ID: <v03007801af68b9b3f01e@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 12:08 AM -0800 4/2/97, Kent Crispin wrote:

>I'm not working from a cheat sheet.  No one is telling me what to say.
>Just like you, I am too totally inconsequential to make it worth
>anyone's time to try to make me say anything.
>
>I am not in favor of GAK, either.  When I talk about companies wanting
>key escrow I am speaking from observation, not ideology.  It's sad
>that a mailing list that purports to be a bastion of free thought
>harbors so many closed minds -- people who don't have the faintest
>idea about my beliefs fall all over themselves jumping to conclusions,
>apparently because they have become so conditioned to certain
>buzzphrases that they no longer think.


I don't see a significant fraction of the commentors here making
allegations that you are some kind of government agent. While you may have
a "LLNL" address, and so may work for the Lab, I don't consider this
significant, per se.

However, many of us are more than just opposed to GAK: we are skeptical of
claims that business wants something closely resembling GAK.

Key recovery systems have many legitimate uses; this has been acknowledged
by the thoughtful commentors here for several years, for as long as the
debate has existed. (Before the Cypherpunks group was even formed, I did
some consulting for a businees interested in setting up a form of offshore
data storage--key recovery was an obvious part of the strategy.)

However, key recovery need have no "hooks" by government into it. The
attempt by the government to ensure secret access, without even so much as
a search warrant, is revealing.

This is what we oppose. Opposing a system which could easily turn into GAK
is hardly a matter of "closed minds."

Kent, you don't want folks labelling you. You should then avoid language
like "fall all over themselves," "conditioned," "purports to be," and
"jumping to conclusions." In fact, in that paragraph of yours above nearly
every phrase was this sort of slam.

--Tim May

Just say "No" to "Big Brother Inside"
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1398269     | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."