From: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 12:43:45 +0800
To: cypherpunks@Algebra.COM
Subject: Any talk of limiting _existing_ crypto?
Message-ID: <v03102809b03e747663d3@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain




OK, so the imminent legislation will ban sale or distribution unescrowed
crypto products after 1999 or 2000 or whatever. Exact details unclear. But
I see no language declaring existing products to be contraband. (Though
such language could still come, of course...nothing would surprised me at
this point.)

So, what about Alice and Bob using PGP 5.0 or Explorer with S-MIME, or
whatever. Plenty of crypto already out there. They can drop their encrypted
text into whatever mail program or browser they're using.

If existing crypto is fully legal to use, then it could be years and years
before the Freeh-Reno-SAFE outlawing has any significant effect.

Is there any reasonable interpretation of any of the SAFE or Pro-CODE bills
that could make it illegal to use preexisting crypto programs (before the
ban)? Any way they could make it illegal to use PGP or Lotus Notes or
whatever in conjunction with a mailer or browser?


If not, then our strategy should be to get the simpler, text-centric,
crypto programs massively and widely deployed. Spend the year or so we have
before D-Day getting crypto onto every CD-ROM being distributed, every
public domain site, etc.

(An old strategy, and one great progress has been made on. But now we have
to really go into high gear, to _really_ get crypto widely deployed.)

Integration with mailers and browsers may not even be such a good idea, as
the evolution of such products will cause obsolescence. Better, perhaps, to
leave the crypto at the "text edit" level, the ASCII level, where it can be
dropped in cleanly to whatever program is current. (Also an old strategy,
one with many advantages.)

The war criminals in Washington will have a real hard time rounding up the
crypto deployed between now and D-Day.

Fucking criminals. Fight the _real_ criminals. Nuke em til they glow.

--Tim May

There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws.
Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!"
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
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."