Senator Backs Down On Crypto Backdoors

evenprime writes: " Sen. Judd Gregg (Republican, New Hampshire) was advocating mandatory backdoors in crypto on Sept. 13. Wired is now reporting that Sen. Gregg has changed his mind. They say that Gregg's spokesman, Brian Hart, has said: 'We are not working on an encryption bill and have no intention to.'" As Rob Carlson is quoted at the article's close, though: "(Gregg) said he was definitely supporting it. Now he says he's definitely not. Maybe he'll say he's definitely supporting it again."

Comments

Perhaps

[Green Aardvark House]

From the Wired article:

I think if they put a crypto provision in this bill, it would have passed," Froomkin said. "Look at what the administration got."

Froomkin was talking about additional eavesdropping and surveillance powers requested by the Bush administration, which the Senate and the House overwhelmingly voted for last week. That bill is called the USA Act.

He backed off crypto backdoors because the government is going to get enhanced wiretapping powers, etc.

It's a little give and take, but it's nice to see the "give" this time.

My God ...

[Daniel Dvorkin]

This is the first time I can think of where some politico who was talking about some horrible piece of legislation which was opposed in an organized fashion by the open-source community actually changed his mind. Am I being wildly optimistic in thinking that the online petitions, EFF lobbying, etc. made a difference, and might make a difference in the future? Or was there some other factor at work here?

Letter writing (OT but interesting)

[Merk]

It's kinda funny. For a long time now people have been saying "if you want your congress rep, senator, MP, friendly dictator, etc. to listen send them snail-mail". These days with the Anthrax scares, I'd say one way to guarantee your rep won't see what you wrote it to send it by snail-mail.

Will this result in more reps using email, and thus more influence for geeks? Or will this just mean phone calls and personal appearances become even more important.

One thing's for sure. If you want to write your rep a letter about something that matters to you -- put down that powdered sugar donut and wash your hands before you do do it!

Re:Letter writing (OT but interesting)

[sulli]

Or send a fax. Faxes use the office's own paper - plus they're more attention-getting than snail mail.

Key escrow will never pass anyway

[CmdrTroll]

It's nice to see that a formerly ill-informed senator who supported key escrow has changed his evil ways. But key escrow is the least of our worries because big business wouldn't want the government to be trusted with guarding the keys that shield them from huge losses. Consider these large lobbyists:

• Banks: they don't want the government to be able to tap into ATM networks and other encrypted communications, for the personal benefit of the government employees. There's a lot at stake for them because somebody can steal billions if they obtain certain keys. And, as they say, everybody has their price.
• RIAA/MPAA: they don't want yet another potential source of leakage for their CSS/DVD/music encryption keys. They'd prefer to wait for some thief in Norway to find it because thieves in Norway take several months to work.
• Telecom companies: they don't want the government to see what they're really up to. Ditto for Microsoft. They're all engaged in shady, anticompetitive practices and have learned by now to encrypt internal email and memos.

The list goes on. Fortunately key escrow is opposed by the very people who run America - large corporations and lobbying groups. And that is why we need to worry about the crap in ATA/PATRIOT instead - because big companies don't care whether or not the government can snoop on anti-WTO activists, detain immigrants forever, or give life sentences to hackers.

-CT

a win for the U.S. System of Government

[fetta]

A college political science professor once made a statement that stuck with me - "the U.S. system of government is intentionally designed to impede the popular will." In this case, it seems to have worked. Our entire system of government is designed to slow things down so that rash and unwise decisions don't get made too quickly. It doesn't always work, but the current crisis is exactly the kind of situation our government is designed to deal with.

The government doesn't always act as quickly as we would like - and that's a good thing.