[3831] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Calif. Gov't E-Commerce panel recommendations
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (P. J. Ponder)
Tue Dec 22 10:57:01 1998
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 10:47:45 -0500 (EST)
From: "P. J. Ponder" <ponder@freenet.tlh.fl.us>
To: cryptography@c2.net
This is from a recent E-Commerce report in California. It highlights the
'Cat Being Out of the Bag' argument against crypto controls. The full
report is available from: http://www.e-commerce.ca.gov/
<Begin Quoted material:>
6 The federal government should overhaul its current restrictions on the
export of encryption technology, taking fully into account actual foreign
availability of comparable technologies. For example, Netscapes Internet
browser and e-mail application "Communicator" that incorporates 128-bit
encryption technology may not be exported from the US to foreign
consumers. Yet, using any of the popular Internet search engines, it takes
only a few minutes to find foreign-based websites from which one can
obtain free add-on software independently developed by foreign software
developers that will augment Communicator so that it will have 128-bit
encryption capabilities. This fact should justify eliminating the current
ban on exporting the 128-bit version of Communicator, and a truly rigorous
foreign availability review of encryption technology would support
substantially broader deregulation.
<End Quote>
The report has a catchy title, too:
"If I'm so empowered, why do I need you?"
Defining Government's Role in Internet Electronic Commerce
