> <much snipped>
>
> Many nations are now following the lead of the US, Russian,
>and French governments, and are seeking to arrogate titular control
>over encryption. I say "titular" because real, actual, control is
>impossible and everyone with a clue knows it. All that will happen
>is that export control regulations will be announced as the failure
>they are, and governments will then argue that they need direct,
>*domestic* control. We're starting to see the early rumbles of
>that game from the FBI and Janet Reno, and every time there's a
>Unabomber or Freemen or Koresh we can expect another "Good thing
>they didn't use STRONG CRYPTO or we'd never have caught them"
>argument.
>
> What's so laughable about the whole thing is that I live
>in a town where the drug dealers do their deals in the clear with
>pagers and cellphones and law enforcement is still helpless. If
>they're helpless and incompetent against an enemy using no
>communications security at all, they should just give up about
>dealing with the *real* terrorists and spies who actually know
>what they're doing. Unless the KGB has agreed to escrow their
>one-time-pads with Ft Meade, the only benefit all this escrow
>crap will have for the government is helping them watch us
>honest but pissed-off citizens, and lining the coffers of
>revolving-door defense contractors.
>
>mjr.
>
> <snipped>
I agree 100%. Outlaw secret crypto, and only crooks will have
secret crypto. This will only impact business and personal use of
the internet, with zero impact on crime. (Reminds me of the Panama
invasion, which was justified by drug traffic reasons, which of
course increased afterwards. Noriega probably wasn't sharing his cut.)
As usual, I believe the propoganda machine is manipulating opinion/law
by associating a technology with drugs/terrorism/child molesters/killers.
One could outlaw sports cars or station wagons that way.
Reguardless of the outcome of secret vs. registered keys, I believe
there will be a plethoria of encryption products next year. Either
way, criminals organizations will use strong secret crypto without escrow.
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