[41559] in Cypherpunks
Re: My chat with Goeff Greiveldinger
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Michael Froomkin)
Sun Oct 15 22:44:17 1995
Date: Sun, 15 Oct 1995 22:37:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: Michael Froomkin <froomkin@law.miami.edu>
To: "Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net>
Cc: cypherpunks <cypherpunks@toad.com>
In-Reply-To: <aca70b991b0210041885@[205.199.118.202]>
Tim May asks why Greiveldinger is invited (or, more to the point, why he
accepted the invitation).
I don't know. There are fun legal issues, not all arising from contract
here. In particular, assume for a momement that (1) the goverment offers
"escrow" services and/or (2) the government requires that >40 bit
encryption products include mandatory US govt-apporved escrow as a
precondition for export clearance [the NIST trial balloon].
Under (1) your participation in the escrow is not necessarily
"voluntary"; a similar, if less powerful, argument can be made under
(2). Also, when the government provides the "escrow service" different
liability rules may apply.
FWIW, My guess is GG is going because the right person asked him. That's
why I'm going, and that's how Washington works...
A. Michael Froomkin | +1 (305) 284-4285; +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax)
Associate Professor of Law |
U. Miami School of Law | froomkin@law.miami.edu
P.O. Box 248087 | http://www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin
Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA | It's hot here. And humid.
