From: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 1997 10:52:15 +0800
To: Declan McCullagh <cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Because they want to be "players"
In-Reply-To: <199709181945.MAA20511@gabber.c2.net>
Message-ID: <v03102808b04792fd9407@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 5:53 PM -0700 9/18/97, Declan McCullagh wrote:

>But wait... The version of SAFE "as is" contains the ***FIRST EVER***
>domestic restrictions on encryption! Why should it be passed intact? For
>the sake of Beltway politicking and deal-cutting?
>
>It includes very, very troubling severe criminal penalties for the use of
>encryption in a crime. When encryption is in everything from light switches
>to door knobs, any crime will include crypto, no? It would be like
>criminalizing "breathing air in the commission of a crime..."

Yes, SAFE is an evil bill. And anyone who supports the "use a cipher, go to
prison" language (*) is guilty of a most serious crime.

(* Some object to this slogan, saying that crypto use is not actually
outlawed. Well, neither were guns outlawed when the billboards went up in
California and other states: "Use a gun, go to prison." The meaning is
clear.)

>Why not just say "stop SAFE altogether?" No new laws are better than bad
>new laws. And even if the crypto-in-a-crime provisions are yanked, SAFE may
>be a bad bill. I wrote about this in June:

Indeed, I also condemned it earlier this year.
....
>Why are these organizations -- CDT, VTW, Wired, EFF, ATR -- urging it be
>passed intact, as is? Why should Americans give up their rights so business
>can make more money on encryption exports?
>

Because they want to be "players." And to be "players," they feel they have
to get in their at the pork barrel and bargain away our rights.

Fuck them all. They are all scum.

(The ACLU is far from perfect, but I am gaining new respect for their
absolutist stance on most civil liberties issues. I am assuming that the
ACLU will not support the "speak in Spanish while committing a crime and
get an extra 10 years" language? This, by the way, is what the "use a
cipher" language is exactly parallel to.)

--Tim May

The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   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."