[4027] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
RE: France Allows 128 Bit Crypto
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Chuck Robey)
Wed Jan 20 23:22:45 1999
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 19:41:38 -0500 (EST)
From: Chuck Robey <chuckr@mat.net>
To: "AI mailer v .1 alpha" <tyme@dreams.res.cmu.edu>
Cc: cryptography@c2.net
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.05.9901202219400.20688-100000@dreams.res.cmu.edu>
On Wed, 20 Jan 1999, AI mailer v .1 alpha wrote:
> On Wed, 20 Jan 1999, Black Unicorn wrote:
>
> > > 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.
> >
> > WOAH. Are you sure you know what you are doing? You're close to imposing a
> > duty to decrypt punishable by penal sanctions (read jailtime). This is
> > precisely the WRONG way to go.
>
> Does anyone know if you have a safe in your house, and the police sieze it
> with a warant, whether they can demand you give them the combination?
> Assume it's extremely resistant to cutting with an oxy-acetylene torch,
> and it would take them weeks or months to get into it without the
> combination.
Is it possible, perhaps, that some of this is over-reaction? I
strenuously object to a crypto back-door for law enforcement, because I
do not trust law enforcement to be correct in their use (always getting
warrants). I believe that some of the time, they would just decrypt
everything, find stuff of interest, then pretend they didn't decrypt,
take it to a judge, and get legal permission to go back and reread the
stuff they'd already stolen.
The point is, tho, that if they *don't* have a back-door they can
violate, and they *are* required to use a procedure that keeps them
(somewhat) honest, then I do in fact want them to be able to read mail
that they can get court orders for. I like having a free _and_ legal
society, not just a _legal_ society. I want to keep controls on police,
but *not* shut them down.
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Chuck Robey | Interests include any kind of voice or data
chuckr@glue.umd.edu | communications topic, C programming, and Unix.
213 Lakeside Drive Apt T-1 |
Greenbelt, MD 20770 | I run Journey2 and picnic (FreeBSD-current)
(301) 220-2114 | and jaunt (NetBSD).
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