From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 18:08:44 +0800
To: <cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: ICANN (New IANA) as a Pawn in an Economic Struggle Between USand
In-Reply-To: <v04011713b23af248f836@[192.168.0.1]>
Message-ID: <v0401170eb23b06aa842d@[139.167.130.249]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Not to disturb your exegetic reverie, here, Gord, but I asked Mr.
Magaziner, when he spoke at at the Electronic Payments Forum earlier this
month, in front of about 400 or so digital commerce and e$ types, the
following question:

"Given your administration's, um, success, in banning strong foriegn
cryptography, how do you propose to ban it in the United States?"

His answer then was that he was absolutely postively against key escrow or
limits on cryptography of any kind. Besides stealing all my carefully
worded thunder :-), he got a big round of applause. <grumble, grumble
goddamn liberals, grumble, grumble>

He also said that the major reason for the, um, complexity, of US crypto
policy was that the administration's internet commerce types were fighting
the law enforcent types tooth and nail about it.

I want to smash the state as much as the next crypto-anarchist :-), but I
figure this is what is happening. The spooks gave up on this crap long ago,
and it's just the cops standing in front of the steamroller now. Money
trumps crime-FUD, just like it did spook-FUD. F=MA, and all that. :-).


Cheers,
Bob Hettinga

"There's the conspiracy theory of history, where elites conspire to shape
events behind the scenes, the fuck-up theory of history, where elites fuck
up and conspire to cover it behind the scenes, and the fucked-up conspiracy
theory of history, where elites conspire to shape events, fuck up, and
conspire to cover it up behind the scenes. My favorite theory is the
latter."
-- (An as-yet Unremembered) Mizzou History Prof

or, in the spirit of William of Occam,

"Never attribute to conspiracy what can be explained by stupidity." --Jerry
Pournelle




-----------------
Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com>
Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'