Re: [ISN] President's crypto-committee meets in secret

From: mea culpa (jerichoat_private)
Date: Thu Jun 25 1998 - 14:10:36 PDT

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    Reply From: Chris Wilson <cmw32at_private>
    
    [...snip...]
    
    > Raising no complaints were representatives from the House and Senate
    > Intelligence committees, who showed up yesterday to argue for strict
    > crypto restrictions. "We cannot subject national security and public
    > safety to the whims of the marketplace," said Patrick Murray, chief
    > counsel to House Intelligence.  "Without access to plaintext, that
    > information will remain unavailable to law enforcement. Investigations
    > will cease. Criminals will remain on the street." Pedophiles, he
    > complained, could hide their "child pornography"  with impunity. 
    
    I think most of us have heard this argument before. What does child
    pornography have to do with encryption anyway? There's nobody out there
    (that we know of) reading every single picture sent over the Net to check
    whether or not it's child pornography. What does matter is the First
    Amendment and the fact that whatever these "paedophiles" are doing with
    their Internet connections is about as much business of ours as what
    Patrick Murray does with his, i.e. none at all. I don't support
    paedophilia but I believe that paedophiles are as much human beings and
    have as much right to enjoy themselves without hurting  others as every
    one of us.
    
    However, that is not the point. The point is that yet again, the
    Government is trying to use emotional blackmail to cloud a technical
    issue, just as they did two weeks ago when they claimed that strong
    cryptography would result in loss of life (and, curiously, that banning
    strong cryptography would somehow alleviate the situation, as if
    terrorists could care less about encryption laws).
    
    Incidentally, I wonder if the thought occurred to Mr Murray that it might
    be better to allow paedophiles to satisfy themselves with their 
    pornography than to make them desparate enough to go out and find some
    child to satisfy themselves?
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