
Thanks for posting this and making it available. This post will be LONG, I will
comment on most of it, and am reluctantly leaving all of the original in place
to provide context.

Please note that an alt. group has been set up for the Clipper stuff.

                                                     ^^^^^^^^^
Hum, AT&T, VLSI and Mykotronx are 'industry'?
Wonder what happened to IBM, this should be right up their street.
And a mandateed scheme is voluntary? Mr Orwell would love this.

                                                 ^^^^^^^^^

Telephone encryption and scrambleing are years behind digital ones like RSA,
IDEA, or even DES. The above, while literaly true, is a clasic straw-man claim
in the context of non-real-time circuits such as E-mail and the like.


I would modestly propose that a mandated use of ISDN would do more for commun-
ications than this lot.


Normmaly DES.

                                        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Note the use of the word "business" in the above. The whole tenor of this
release seems to be establishing a ground rule that only "business" use
is legitimate for debate. If you want the nothings you drop in your wife's
ear to remain secret and private, that is not even on the agenda for debate.
Note that there is NO role for you to contain private info in this. The only
reference is to information already in the hands of others. The 'unauthorized
release' bit is also drawing a long bow. Most of these cases are by people who
have legitimate access abusing it, and revealing, or often selling the info.
These people are, of course, in this proposal, the people who will have the
keys.

The criminals also use lawers, courts, the CIA, white-house officials and pens
to go about their business. When will they be outlawed as well? Yeah, several
of them would be a better idea than CLipper!

Them again, the protections of law and the courts have been seriously erroded
over the last decade ofr so.

                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
NSA


Yeah, this bit is VERY true.


Note the repeated mixing of telephone scrabeling and encryption. A demo
of the above claim on an ordanary POTS would be a good nights entertainment
I suspect. Note also the 'many'. not 'all', as the general tone implies.

                                ^^^^^^^^^
                                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The case record seems to indicate that what is needed is a brutal tightening
of the current abuses. I have not heard, yet, of a case that was impeaded by
the use of secure encryption by the men in black. The other side, abuse by law
enforcers is well documented, even by govt agencies. And the phone vs other coms
is blurred yet again.


































Lets run that line twice. Not **VERY** carefully what it says. The stated
purpose of the key eschrow is to make the use of Clipper compulsory. Note the
word "ensure". As to 'protect', or 'law-abiding', I will leave to you.
So to the person who asked if it included the outlawing of other encryptions,
the answer in this press release is, YES.


Just as they only can wiretap now with a warrent. 


Just makes sure that the illegal ones are preserved.


Where do you find many experts. Any ex KGB people looking for a contract? :-)
And as a later posting asks, what of the STU-IIIs they already have. It will
be very interesting to see if the military and US embasies start to use it.
After all, it is secure, isn't it. The govt will answer that point by its own
actions.

                                                ^^^^^^^^

Again, personal use seems to be a unaskable question.

                                                  ^^^^^

Ah, so warrents are not always needed it seems.


The ITARs seem to slightly impeed this.


Note that all this wonderfull stuff will be in secret. Only the 'proper people'
will be able to express an opinion, hence only the desired result will emerge.


Encryption and codes have been around for millenia. They are generaly in
equilibrium with the technology of the time. The systematic study of cyphers
has resulted in a swing in favor of the encrypter, AT THE MOMENT. I have no
doubt that the factoring problem will fall in time. Probably fofr practical
purposes by the middle of the next century.


It is a little hard to critisise a non-proposal.


Note we drop back to 'phone-mode' again. If this is a true answer, it can be
rephrased as " It sucks big time. Anyone who can drive the crypt work-bench
will use it for light amusement before breakfast."


This link between the security of the key-eschrow, and the actual algorithm is 
a real winner. Given that I have 2 secret 40 bit numbers, could someone please
explain how the details of an encryption algorithm will reveal them?


Just make sure you read the CVs REAL carfully, OK.


Quick, with out looking back, What name is missing from that list?


The people who agree with us and who think there is a buck in it for them.


The reverse engineering provisions of the 'Mask-work' act could be relevent
here.


You don't. Not unless you are one of the 'right people'.


They missed the word secret here. He needs a grammar lesson too.


I would say "less secure, less conveniant, more expensive ( PGP is free ),
less available, and more prone to being comprimised"
Proofs to the contarary will be welcome. Note PROOF.


They don't seem to be saying anything that makes much sense. And this proposal
DOES prohibit it except in a very limited way. And, this is the one explicit
reference to personal rights. It is a denial. And yes, I don't think that the
Mexicans, Brazilians, and Canucks are included in Clinton et als magnanamous
gesture.


The 'false tension' is false. The balance is between two repugnant points. The
RIGHT to privacy is hand-waved to non-existance by putting it behind the "false
assessment". It is assumed that the removal of the right to take what ever steps
YOU deem suitable to protect YOUR privacy is non negotiable, hence is defined
in the govenment language to be non-existant. If you don't agree, you must be a
criminal, as only criminals don't agree with out laws. Also note the non-
question. "If what is here was not possible..."


It indicates we know that Bush dropped the ball in squashing that nasty < insert
suitable retoric > and will stamp out this disorderly, unruley outbreak of
freedom and ultra-national sentiment.


This one is a real giggle. In Australia or France, they will have to reveal the
keys, and the algorithm. Don't think it's at the top of my list of things I must
have, so the restrictions will protect me from saleks trying to sell me a bill
of crock.

Any for any others using it, they must be nuts!

Good luck folks.