At 8:47 PM -0700 8/10/00, Bill Stewart wrote:
>Of course, with Microsoft Internet Exploiter built into all Windows
>systems these days, that means that _every_ Windows laptop is a spy tool
>unless the user has hacked out the browsers. Which would be suspicious in
>itself :-)
>
>
>
>At 09:05 AM 8/10/00 -0500, Matt Crawford wrote:
>>This came third-hand, Sandia -> DOE -> me
>>
>>> > "Per the Office of Diplomatic Security, Department of State,
>>> > Egypt, France and Russia have instituted the following: Laptop computers
>>> > with encryption capability are considered "SPY TOOLS" and will be seized
> >> > or denied entry into the country."
Speaking of _France_, remember the above line (along with very
similar lines in the past) the next time France is trumpetted as
having a new "pro-crypto" policy.
It wasn't too long ago that somene was citing France's new policy to
encourage encryption, to fight the evil imperialist Echelon, and so
on.
Most of this "crypto schizophrenia" comes from a very simple reason:
these nations are "adhocracies," that is, they make up rules as they
go along.
While things are bad, and getting worse, in the U.S., at least there
is the fallback of citing the First Amendment to stop things like
mandatory escrow of communications, censorship of encrypted speech,
and raids. Nations without a robust Bill of Rights sort of document,
and without a tradition of Supreme Court decisions affirming
constitutional rights, will always be subject to these "crypto
schizophrenia" ad hoc decisions.
Which brings us to Canada...
--Tim May
--
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
"Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.
