[4321] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: new bill getting through congress?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Alan Davidson)
Fri Mar 12 12:56:56 1999
In-Reply-To: <87yal3znb1.fsf@jekyll.piermont.com>
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 09:55:29 -0500
To: perry@piermont.com, cryptography@c2.net
From: Alan Davidson <abd@CDT.ORG>
At 5:14 PM -0500 3/11/99, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
>Anyone know anything about this?
>
>Thursday March 11 11:15 AM ET
>
>Bill To Relax U.S. Controls On Encryption Advances
>
>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bill to relax strict U.S. export controls on
>computer data-scrambling products passed a small hurdle Thursday,
>gaining approval from a House Judiciary subcommittee by voice vote.
Attached below is a short statement by CDT on yesterday's subcommittee
vote. CDT testified about the SAFE bill before this subcommittee last week.
This year's SAFE Act is an export relief bill very similar to the SAFE bill
introduced last Congress. More information about the hearing and the bill
is available on our crypto web page, http://www.cdt.org/crypto
-- Alan
Alan Davidson, Staff Counsel 202.637.9800 (v)
Center for Democracy and Technology 202.637.0968 (f)
1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 1100 <abd@cdt.org>
Washington, DC 20006 PGP key via finger
March 12, 1999
SAFE ACT (HR 850) PASSES SUBCOMMITTEE BY UNANIMOUS VOICE VOTE
The SAFE Act (HR 850), an encryption bill that would take a major step
forward in strengthening the privacy of Internet users, passed easily through
its first subcommittee vote Thursday. At a mark-up this morning, members of the
House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property passed
SAFE by a unanimous voice vote.
Before voting, the Subcommittee continued its debate on the importance of
encryption export liberalization and its impact on national security and law
enforcement. The bill's co-authors, Rep. Goodlatte (R-VA) and Rep. Lofgren
(D-CA), argued that the public interest is best served by the use of strong
encryption to protect privacy online. Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) suggested
that SAFE should be tied to multilateral export control agreements, such as
the Wassenaar Arrangement. Ultimately, the Subcommittee voted unanimously
to pass the bill without amendments.
CDT staff counsel Alan Davidson called today's vote in favor of SAFE "a
strong show of support for online privacy." Davidson and others testified
at a Subcommittee hearing last Thursday that current export controls leave
the privacy of Americans at serious risk. Since the House Judiciary
Committee last debated encryption two years ago, the security of 56-bit
limits on key lengths has been seriously challenged, mandatory key recovery
has been
rejected as a worldwide standard, and several foreign countries have
dramatically eased encryption export control policies despite pressure from
the U.S. government. The SAFE bill addresses these issues by lifting export
controls, prohibiting mandatory key recovery, and re-affirming the rights
of American citizens to use strong encryption.
BACKGROUND on SAFE:
* CDT's full testimony, which provides a timely status report on the crypto
issue, is online at: http://www.cdt.org/crypto/alantestimony.shtml
* The full text of H.R. 850 and other crypto resources are available at
http://www.cdt.org/crypto
* A RealAudio/Video cybercast of the hearing is available at the Americans
for Computer Privacy website: http://www.computerprivacy.org
