[109714] in Cypherpunks
Re: Encryption
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Declan McCullagh)
Fri Apr 2 10:17:07 1999
Date: Fri, 02 Apr 1999 10:08:29 -0500
To: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>, cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
In-Reply-To: <199904020420.GAA06317@mail.replay.com>
Reply-To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
It's shabby to forward an article without identifying the author (which in
this case was me). You can find the original somewhere on wired.com.
-Declan
At 06:20 AM 4-2-99 +0200, Anonymous wrote:
> A key US senator said Wednesday he was going to introduce new
> encryption legislation. But the proposal is likely to leave all
> sides wanting more.
>
> John McCain, the Arizona Republican who chairs the Senate's Commerce
> Committee, painted the legislation as a compromise.
>
> "This bill protects our national security and law enforcement
> interests while maintaining the United States leadership role in
> information technology," he said.
>
> For years high-tech firms have struggled against the Clinton
> administration's rules restricting the overseas sales of encryption
> products, arguing that they doom American companies to second-place
> finishes in the race to expand the e-commerce market.
>
> McCain's bill relaxes the White House rules. But it does not remove
> them.
>
> "It's uninspired. It's a nonsolution if I've ever seen one," complains
> Alex Fowler, a spokesman for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
>
> Business lobbyists also offered faint praise. "The bill doesn't go as
> far or as fast as the Security and Freedom through Encryption Act,"
> said Ed Gillespie, executive director of Americans for Computer
> Privacy.
>
> Representative Robert Goodlatte (R-Virginia) is championing the SAFE
> bill in the House, as he did with scant success last session. No
> companion legislation has been introduced in the Senate.
>
> Law enforcement lobbyists are hardly likely to support McCain's
> proposal.
>
> For years, US Department of Justice and FBI officials have pressed
> for new federal laws making it a crime to distribute or sell
> unapproved encryption products, including Web browsers and Eudora
> plug-ins. FBI Director Louis Freeh convinced one House committee in
> the last Congress to approve such a ban, and he has shown no signs
> of changing his mind.
>
> "I have not given up on encryption," Freeh told a Senate
> appropriations committee in February.
>
> "Law enforcement remains in unanimous agreement that the
> continued widespread availability and increasing use of strong,
> nonrecoverable encryption products will soon nullify our effective
> use of court-authorized electronic surveillance and the execution of
> lawful search and seizure warrants. The loss of these capabilities
> will devastate our capabilities for fighting crime, preventing acts
> of terrorism, and protecting the national security," Freeh said.
>
> McCain's bill allows the export of encryption products with up to
> 64-bit length keys, an increase over current 56-bit limits.
>
> It also creates an encryption export advisory board that would render
> advice on export applications, though the Commerce Department would
> make the final decisions. The new federal bureaucracy would be made
> up of 12 members, with automatic representation from the CIA, NSA,
> and the White House.
>
> Although the text of the legislation has not been made public, its
> biggest impact may be in showing McCain is softening his position
> on encryption. Previously he was one of the Senate's most vocal
> supporters of government-coerced key escrow, which would build
> surveillance capability into software and hardware products. Now
> he's hardly a friend of strong encryption, but he's no longer a
> hardened adversary.
>
> "The announcement is most notable because it represents a major shift
> in positioning.... Senator McCain was previously a major supporter
> of administration encryption policy and opponent of encryption relief
> efforts," an analysis published Wednesday by the Center for Democracy
> and Technology said.
>
