[6388] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
New don't-ask-don't-tell encryption policy
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Declan McCullagh)
Fri Jan 14 13:28:34 2000
Message-Id: <4.3.0.29.0.20000114122134.00a93450@pop.webcom.com>
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2000 12:23:02 -0500
To: cryptography@c2.net
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@wired.com>
Cc: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
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http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,33651,00.html
Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell Encryption
by Declan McCullagh (declan@wired.com)
3:00 a.m. 14.Jan.2000 PST
WASHINGTON -- If there's one lawsuit
the US government would dearly like to
see vanish, it's the case of Bernstein v.
Department of Commerce.
The suit, which began with graduate
student Daniel Bernstein's earnest desire
to post a simple computer program to the
sci.crypt Usenet newsgroup in 1992,
threatens to topple an imposing colossus
of government rules that regulate
privacy-protecting encryption products.
Suffice it to say that's not an outcome
that law enforcement or national security
officials would applaud.
So it's no coincidence that those cunning
Justice Department lawyers may have
found a way to get rid of the suit.
This week's announcement by the Clinton
administration that it was changing
current encryption regulations gives
government attorneys additional
ammunition to use in court against the
Bernstein lawyers.
[...snip...]
