From: TruthMonger <tm@dev.null>
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 1997 16:21:39 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Two Birds With One Stone / Re: Keepers of the keys
Message-ID: <199707190808.CAA16800@wombat.sk.sympatico.ca>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Joe Shea wrote:
>         And if Tim May does kill me, I hope someone has his key, or better
> yet, can go make a showing to a judge and get it from him.

  It is much more likely that a federal agent, using Tim's escrowed key
to read his opinion of you, would whack you out and set Tim up for the
crime, thereby eliminating two troublesome birds with one stone.

> There are
> plenty of them, though, and they are moving vast sums of stolen money and
> nuclear weapon parts and stolen information all over the globe.  I see no
> reason why we should be defenseless against them.

  We are defenseless against them because they are working for the same
fucking governments that you want to give your crypto keys to.
  Key escrow is meant for fucking the little guy in the ass, not the
major players.

> On the other hand,
> if someone's going to blow up San Francisco this week, it sure would help
> to have a key to any encrypted communications he was generating.

  Yeah, sure. I use an escrowed key to communicate about all of my
criminal activities, and I send the FBI a cc: on all of them.
  It sure would help if LEA's all had access to the American Reporter's
files so that they could censor any writing that might encite someone to
blow up San Franciso.
  Why don't you send them all of your writing for approval, Joe? If all
the people in favor of key escrow would allow the government total
access
to all of their communications, then the drop in crime would more than
make up for that commited by those who use encryption.

  If you can't afford to buy a clue, Joe, then try renting.

TruthMonger