[4315] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: new bill getting through congress?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jim Gillogly)
Thu Mar 11 18:04:49 1999
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1999 14:47:28 -0800
From: Jim Gillogly <jim@acm.org>
Reply-To: jim@acm.org
To: cryptography@c2.net
> Anyone know anything about this?
Yes, it's Goodlatte and Lofgren's SAFE bill, trying for about
the third time to get through. It was defeated each time by
the usual back-room classified scare sessions from the government.
Freeh still opposes it. Unfortunately the bill doesn't go far
enough, in that individuals are left out in the cold: it's essentially
for the Microsofts and Netscapes of the industry to be exportable.
According to EPIC it also creates a new crime: using crypto to
commit a crime.
Last time around the dueling amendments in various committees
gutted it, then replaced the guts, and finally killed it.
Goodness knows what will happen this time -- it has a better
chance, since the anti-privacy Solomon has left the House.
Lots of committees to go, so no celebrations are in order yet.
The long list of co-sponsors is no guarantee that it will survive
intact, since more than half the House co-sponsored it last time.
--
Jim Gillogly
19 Rethe S.R. 1999, 22:46
12.19.6.0.4, 12 Kan 17 Kayab, Fourth Lord of Night
