Crypto Restrictions Are Taking Over the World

zeke writes: "An article on SecurityFocus details how forced key escrow and other crypto restrictions have taken root around the world, in countries like France, South Africa, the Netherlands and the UK. Ironically, this leaves the United States -- the birthplace and graveyard of the Clipper Chip -- as one of the few bastions of unregulated encryption."

Comments

BBC got an artical as well

[Richard_at_work]

This about sums it up for the UK.

We`re all doomed!!! doomed i tells ya!!

The UK has less rights than the US?

[oliverthered]

Well that all depends on your point of view.
The UK has far more employment rights than the US has.
also the right to medical treatment.

the right to life (no death penality).

The right to get arrested without being put in handcufs.
Hell I can even crack a joke with the police if they get stopped, and give them a bit of hastle e.g. Have you got any ID? so long as i don't break any serious law or take the piss to much.

I can buy tin foil, baking soda, spoons, bongs etc.... without feer of being arrested.

I can have a open bottle in the car.

I can cross the road.

When I was younger I had even more rights, maybe the UK is just trying to catch up with the poor human rights policy in the US.

Re:The UK has less rights than the US?

[davebooth]

As a Brit living in the US (still undecided on whether I'll switch citizenship so hopefully free of undue bias) I'll have a stab at answering this one...

• In the UK it is illegal to fire a woman simply because she is pregnant. It is also required for a company to offer maternity leave that must be paid for a statutory minimum time, after which up to a years unpaid leave must be offered with the employee able to return with no loss of status or seniority. Unfortunately some companies (just like in the US and everywhere else any corporate behaviour is regulated) dont like living up to these rules and will often do the bare minimum their lawyers think they can get away with. The ones with the good lawyers do get away with it, the others get sued or prosecuted.
• The police in the UK and in the US have a duty to protect the public. They have lots of rules about how they are allowed to go about it which they are expected to apply before anything gets into court to decide questions of law. Three or more huge guys wearing Vikings colors making a point of getting in the face of anyone coming down the street wearing green and gold would likely get arrested over here too. UK cops are expected to use their judgement just as US cops are. In either country its still true that is you piss off a cop badly enough (s)he can probably find something to nick you for.
• One could probably refuse to divulge a crypto key on the grounds that you cannot be required to answer questions.. However, that is one area in which the US has the superior laws since in the US courts are not allowed to even mention whether you answered questions or not. In the UK the advice of your rights when arrested goes on to say that if you do not answer questions then that refusal itself may be alluded to in court - That caused a HUGE stink when it got pushed through.
• This one isnt much of an issue. In MN I cant buy wine in a grocery store. Similarly liquor stores are not open past 8pm and are all closed Sundays. This has in the past few years caused me more hassle than being unable to buy beer or wine before 11am or on Sunday afternoons in the UK. Wherever you are you'll find folks who dont like the licensing laws.
• Stores closed on a Sunday.. not much of an issue anymore. First it was a holdover from the days when the church was a legislative power in Europe, then small local stores were exempted to try and save them from being driven out of business by huge supermarkets and then large corporations lobbyists got their megastores exempted too... Hmmm.. sounds kinda familiar :)
• In the UK you ARE guaranteed a refund if the product is faulty. Some stores will try and persuade you to accept a replacement or an in-store credit but if you insist they must take faulty goods back and refund your money. Most folks just dont want the hassle of insisting on a refund and threatening the store with legal action if they dont comply. In the US I believe you have similar rights but unlike in the UK you're more willing to complain so it makes business sense here to just refund with no questions asked beyond seeing the receipt. In the UK there isnt that pressure so again they dont do more than the law requires.

Re:And Canada

[dark_panda]

Some links to info on Canadian crypto laws:

Electronic Frontier Canada's Crypto Page

A Notice to Exporters, part of the Canadian Export and Import Permits Act: "Export Controls on Cryptographic Goods"

A speech by John Manley from 1998, then the Minister of Industry: Canada's Cryptography Policy

The Canadian government's cryptography website: Cryptography/Cryptographie

I have somewhat of a stake in Canada's crypto laws, as I've been writting and maintaining a strong cryptography extension for PHP which uses the Crypto++ library. Of course, my code itself contains absolutely no cryptographic code, it just links to the aforementioned library, but still...

J

Regulating encryption won't stop criminals.

[greenrom]

Regulating encryption will do nothing to stop criminals from using it. There is a TON of information on the internet about strong encryption. Anyone with basic programming skills and an understanding of mathematics should be able to implement any of the most popular encryption algorithms.

Even if you make transmitting encrypted communication illegal, it's not going to stop criminals. Hiding cyphertext is just too easy. For example, take a 16-bit wave file and use the least significant bit of each sample for your cyphertext. Assuming your cyphertext doesn't have any header data, it will be virtually undetectable. The only thing someone might notice is some very low level white noise in the background that could be attributed to anything.

Similar things can be done with jpegs, mpegs, and a host of other file formats. If government officials had a better understanding of the technology, they wouldn't waste our time with laws that only hurt law abiding citizens and do nothing to curtail crime.

Re:And Canada... Ireland

[pyat]

The ECommerce Act
in Ireland approaches it as follows:

"...the Act provides for a court order to be issued requiring a person to disclose the encrypted evidence in a plain-text form. However, section 27 of the Act specifically provides that nothing in the Act shall have the effect of requiring the disclosure of unique data such as codes, passwords, algorithms, private cryptographic keys..."

Not perfect, but I have seen worse. There are also expressions that people are entitled to use the strongest available forms of encryption, and should be encouraged to do so