[1608] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Crypto Keys as Spam
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dan Geer)
Wed Sep 24 11:32:43 1997
To: Charles Platt <cp@panix.com>
Cc: cryptography@c2.net
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Tue, 23 Sep 1997 00:41:57 EDT."
<Pine.SUN.3.91.970923003017.13452A-100000@panix.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1997 10:16:20 -0400
From: Dan Geer <geer@world.std.com>
If we do suffer a federal law that mandates key escrow and survives
constitutional tests, would it be possible to screw the system by
generating huge numbers of crypto keys for federal storage? Imagine,
say, 100,000 people each contributing a million different keys to the
federal registry.
The late Head of Research for XXX was staunchly
opposed to software patenting as practiced by the
US PTO. In a discussion of that matter, he told
me that icon patents galled him particularly, so
he had filed 3,500 of them in a single go just to
choke the system and, in so doing, end the issue
of icon patents for a time. I could follow up,
but the point is that overwhelming the system is
a venerable idea. Dating myself, that's why 50,000
of us turned in our draft cards on the same day.
--dan
