[1497] in linux-security and linux-alert archive
[linux-security] Re: Re: UK Encryption ban legislation {from: [comp.risks] RISKS DIGEST 18.95}
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Adam Morris)
Wed Apr 2 08:24:12 1997
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 1997 08:09:36 +0000
From: Adam Morris <adam.morris@octacon.co.uk>
To: R.E.Wolff@BitWizard.nl
CC: linux-security@redhat.com
Resent-From: linux-security@redhat.com
Reply-To: linux-security@redhat.com
Jeff Uphoff wrote:
>
> "RW" == Rogier Wolff <R.E.Wolff@BitWizard.nl> writes:
> RW>
> RW> Similarly, it seems that the English have gotten someone who simply
> RW> thinks "Bad guys can use encryption, lets make it illegal" to write
> RW> that law. It seems they sneaked it along a few legislative hurldles
> RW> before the masses found out.
> RW>
> RW> I think it is more a case of incompetetence and not of actual "we want
> RW> to be able to tap everything" motives.
> RW>
Actually, It hasn't gone along ANY legislative hurdles. The
document that is causing all this fuss is essentially a white
paper. It was created as a proposal. The government is saying
that they will try and take this through parliament, as far as
I know this does not constitute any legislative hurdles.
The full document is available on
http://dtiinfo1.dti.gov.uk/pubs/
and they would like people to mail their comments to
ttp.comments@ciid.dti.gov.uk
Now if I'm not branded a trouble maker for that then... :-)
As far as I can see, if you read the full document it does not
ban the use of encryption. What it bans is encryption
services. You should be perfectly legal if you manage your
own keys (using PGP or whatever) as long as you are not
managing keys for other people. This means that the PGP web of
trust is useless (read illegal) as you can't sign others keys.
But AFAIK you can use your ttp key to sign your pgp key, and
thus use the trusted third parties as a CA for your PGP key...
and use PGP for encryption.
Adam
