A high-stakes battle is raging in cyberspace over copyright protection. Traditional book publishers, record companies, and moviemakers want extensive copyright safeguards on the Net. Netizens protest that such rules can be arrogant incursions into a medium based on free access to information.
Publishers often view encryption as the magic bullet.
But using encryption to protect electronic data is like securing the barn with a high-tech combination lock. The lock is all but impossible to open without knowing the combination, but once the barn door swings wide, the animals are loose and forever beyond control. With a few keystrokes, a decrypted document can be dispatched via the Internet to thousands of recipients, each of whom can relay more copies to more people. For copyright owners, it's the ultimate nightmare. Hayden, director of Information Infrastructure Programs for the American National Standards Institute.