[117817] in Cypherpunks
Re: ACTION ALERT: Crypto Legislation
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (James A. Donald)
Sat Sep 11 14:14:19 1999
Message-Id: <Version.32.19990911093708.03947be0@shell11.ba.best.com>
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 09:49:25 -0700
To: Jim Dempsey <jdempsey@cdt.org>, jya@pipeline.com
From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com>
Cc: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
In-Reply-To: <v03007802b3f194f5a953@[207.226.3.15]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Reply-To: "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com>
--
At 04:39 PM 8/31/1999 -0400, Jim Dempsey wrote:
> The Republican leadership of the House have said they intend to
> bring SAFE before the full House for a vote this Fall. If so, SAFE
> will likely pass, with or without CDT's support. The only question
> is whether what passes is close to the current SAFE Act or is an
> UN-SAFE Act.
We have heard that one before. It was a false last time and it is
will be false this time.
It is much simpler, and vastly more effective to oppose all and any
legislation, than to support the "right" legislation. Getting one
piece of crypto legislation through, regardless of content, makes it
easier to get another piece of crypto legislation through.
Congressmen are busy, crypto is hard to understand. It is easy to
persuade them to do nothing, dangerous to attempt to persuade them to
do the right thing.
The SAFE bill gives us nothing of value. Let us ask for nothing at
all.
> Like it or not, here's the lineup: if the SAFE Act is brought before
> the full House of Representatives, the allies of the FBI will be
> allowed to offer one or more gutting amendments, preserving the
> export controls and maybe even mandating key recovery. They will
> characterize these amendments as balanced alternatives that protect
> privacy and national security, etc, etc.
If we condemn the bill before amendment, it will be easier to condemn
the bill after amendment, particularly as 99% of congress critters
will not understand the significance of the amendments.
Crypto legislation will always make things worse. There is no
possibility of getting legislative improvement. There is considerable
possibility of getting legislative inaction. Many bills are promised
or threatened, considerably fewer actually get passed.
--digsig
James A. Donald
6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG
VB2IGJFatwuAhzO6SFZB5QVocDkxeqwRIbGssDmQ
4opfb+tGG6Pl09CqEC9gua5qI9PvY9pcXVxYLtGjU
