[4010] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: France Allows 128 Bit Crypto
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Clive D.W. Feather)
Wed Jan 20 13:51:43 1999
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 10:13:42 +0000
To: cryptography@c2.net
From: "Clive D.W. Feather" <clive@on-the-train.demon.co.uk>
Reply-To: "Clive D.W. Feather" <clive@davros.org>
In-Reply-To: <36A53FCE.7E13@lsil.com>
In article <36A53FCE.7E13@lsil.com>, Michael Motyka <mmotyka@lsil.com>
writes
>> - To supplement the current legal framework by the introduction of
>> obligations, together with penal sanctions, concerning the handing-over
>> to the legal authorities, when they require it, of the cleartext
>> version of encrypted documents.
>>
>but this says: "if we want the key you have to give it to us or go to
>jail."
Where ?
It says "handing-over ... of the cleartext version". In other words, a
power to request plaintext under warrant. Not the key.
If you accept the sense in a law to allow law enforcement to seize
documents with a search warrant, then you should not be able to evade
the spirit of that law by encrypting the document. This is the direction
we *should* be pushing at: plaintext under warrant without revealing the
key.
[Hmm: how does LE verify the decryption ? Presumably you have to reveal
the session key ? Is that a big deal ?]
--
Clive D.W. Feather | Director of | Work: <clive@demon.net>
Tel: +44 181 371 1138 | Software Development | Home: <clive@davros.org>
Fax: +44 181 371 1037 | Demon Internet Ltd. | Web: <http://www.davros.org>
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