[117242] in Cypherpunks
Re: ACTION ALERT: Crypto Legislation
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Anonymous)
Sun Aug 29 16:39:41 1999
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1999 20:27:15 +0200 (CEST)
Message-Id: <199908291827.UAA00036@mail.replay.com>
From: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Reply-To: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
> H.L.C.
> õ 2805. Unlawful use of encryption in furtherance of
> a criminal act
> (a) ENCRYPTION OF INCRIMINATING COMMUNICA-
> TIONS OR INFORMATION UNLAWFUL. Any person who,
> in the commission of a felony under a criminal statute of
> the United States, knowingly and willfully encrypts in-
> criminating communications or information relating to
> that felony with the intent to conceal such communications
> or information for the purpose of avoiding detection by
> law enforcement agencies or prosecution
> ...
> (b) USE OF ENCRYPTION NOT A BASIS FOR PROB-
> ABLE CAUSE. The use of encryption by any person shall
> not be the sole basis for establishing probable cause with
> respect to a criminal offense or a search warrant. .
>
> It was not that long ago Jeff Gordon was passing out supoena's to a large
> number of list members here. I have no doubt that had this bill been law a
> majority of us would have received invitations to Clubfed.
What are you talking about? What were "a majority of us" doing which
would have violated the provisions above? Were cypherpunks engaging
in the commission of felonies, and encrypting information relating
to that felony with the intent to conceal? What felonies? What use
of encryption? I doubt that one cypherpunk in 20 sends an encrypted
message even once a week (anonymous posters excepted).
> With Ipsec &
> the Freewan project anyone using the Internet will be guilty under this
> provision wether they know it or not.
Duh, got a reading problem? See the clause above, "knowingly and
willfully"? That makes it impossible to violate the act "wether [sic]
they know it or not".
> The FED's know that they lost the
> key escrow battle and they know that sooner or latter the export
> restrictions will be dropped. They are giving us NOTHING in exchange for
> being able to punish anyone they want for using encryption! We are getting
> fucked and the CDT is willing to go right along with it.
This is total garbage. The act does not let them "punish anyone they want
for using encryption". Read it again. It only criminalizes the use of
encryption to knowingly hide information relating to a felony.
Furthermore, it also plainly states that the use of encryption in itself
does not even rise to the level of probable cause. Which is good, since
in a few years most communications will be encrypted.
In practice, this is just a sop to law enforcement. It is meaningless.
It can't be used unless you have already been convicted for a felony.
Then, if they can get past the "knowingly and willfully" clause, which
would be practically impossible in a world in which 100% of communications
are routinely encrypted, then maybe they can increase the sentence a bit.
But big deal - if you're already in this kind of trouble, the last thing
you'll be worried about is the extra penalty from the use of encryption.
