[719] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Concern over Netscape announcement and GAK
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lucky Green)
Tue May 6 23:47:13 1997
Date: Tue, 06 May 1997 20:00:15 -0700
To: cryptography@c2.net
From: Lucky Green <shamrock@netcom.com>
At 09:32 PM 5/5/97 -0700, sameer wrote:
> By promoting *optional* key recovery now, an infrastructure is
>being built which will make it easy for the government to mandate GAK.
>As of now there is no infrastructure for GAK. If the government passed
>a law saying everyone must use GAK-crypto, then *no crypto* would be
>legal, as there is not much key recovery on the market. If "optional"
>key recovery becomes the standard, the government then becomes free to
>pass a law mandating GAK.
I am afraid that just about sums it up. Currently, the government can't
mandate GAK. It would either bring down electronic commerce. But once the
infrastructure is in place, mandating GAK is easy. History abounds with
similar examples. First registration, then confiscation.
-- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred
"I do believe that where there is a choice only between cowardice and
violence, I would advise violence." Mahatma Gandhi
