From: Joe Acosta <jacosta@americasttv.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1997 01:39:36 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Baby Bells Join In Fighting US Encryption Control
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19970923102250.00807e20@pop.americasttv.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain





>From 

<http://www.yahoo.com/headlines/970923/tech/stories/encrypt_2.html>



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Tuesday September 23 10:04 AM EDT 

Baby Bells Join In Fighting US Encryption Control

By Aaron Pressman 

WASHINGTON - Five of the influential "Baby Bell" regional telephone
companies on Monday joined a coalition urging Congress to reject
a proposal that would give U.S. law enforcement agencies access to
otherwise secure computer files. 

The phone companies, along with dozens of high-tech companies and business
groups, signed a letter opposing proposed limits on
encryption technology used to protect computer files from outside access or
interference. Louis Freeh, director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, has urged Congress to enact the limits. 

The Baby Bells and other opponents of encryption limits sent their letter
to U.S. Rep. Thomas Bliley, Republican of Virginia, chairman of
the House Commerce Committee. 

Later this week, the committee is expected to consider an encryption bill
authored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican.
Prompted by Freeh, the committee is currently leaning toward amending
Goodlatte's encryption bill to impose new limits. 

Five Baby Bells -- Ameritech, Bell Atlantic Corp., BellSouth Corp. , SBC
Communications and US West -- signed the letter opposing the
restrictions. 

Other groups signing the letter ranged across the political spectrum from
civil libertarians at the Center for Democracy and Technology
(CDT) to conservatives at Americans for Tax Reform. 

This would be a direct hit at the telecommunications infrastructure," said
CDT executive director Jerry Berman who helped organize
Monday's letter. It's an unmitigated disaster. " 

The letter was also signed by International Business Machines, which had
previously been seen as one of the few companies not openly
opposing the Clinton administration's policy restricting encryption
exports. But the domestic limits being considered by the Commerce
Committee would go well beyond current policy. 

Encryption products, which scramble information and render it unreadable
without a password or software key," are increasingly being
used to secure communications and electronic commerce over the Internet. 

But the FBI and other law enforcement agencies argue that encryption will
also be used by criminals and terrorists to thwart wiretaps and
police surveillance. 

The amendment being considered by the committee would require all
encryption products sold in the United States to include a back door"
allowing the government to crack any message covertly. 

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