🚀 go-pugleaf

As I posted a while ago on things NeXT should do asap in
comp.sys.next.advocacy I included something on FEE encryption that they
announced and then forgot about. I got a very interesting follow-up that I
want to share with you.

From nevin@dtint.dtint.com:

In article <2214@ltb.ltb.bso.nl> wierda@ltb.ltb.bso.nl (Gerben Wierda) writes:
> 1. NeXT should issue a statement about the status of FEE, or they should
> publish the algorithm so that people outside the US can implement it (like
> PGP). FEE was one of the important points in Steve Jobs keynote speech during
> NeXTworld EXPO '92. Then: total silence. I don't like being kept in the dark
> very much and I want to know what NeXT's opinion of the matter is. Are they
> pursuing a track that might make it available? Have they dumped it?
> 

When NeXT first talked about FEE publicly almost a year ago, I for one was very  
concerned, and for once (and the only time) afraid of the possiblity of NeXT's  
demise.  I publicly stated in the Salt Lake City NeXT user's group that I hoped  
NeXT wouldn't push the FEE thing, and that I didn't think it would show up in  
their actual 3.0 release.

Why?

Because I knew NeXT would face a LOT of government heat and pressure about  
using FEE (the government likes to be able to tap into anything) from the NSA,  
and possibly organizations such as the CIA and FBI (among others).  If NeXT  
chose to fight the governement on this one and tried to release FEE anyway, I  
feared that the government would suck the life right out of NeXT with legal  
hassles.

As a result, instead of this worse-case scenario, what appears to have happened  
is that NeXT got a lot of government scrutiny, and is now winning government  
contracts handily.  And, since NeXT appears to have backed-down on the FEE  
issue, there are no looming legal hassles (to my knowledge).

If NeXT published their FEE algorithm's, it *might* result in a software  
release from foreign sources, and it *might* result in a happier user base,  
with increased sales. However, it *would* result it pissing off one of their  
biggest customers (the government) and it *would* result in NeXT losing any and  
all proprietary interests they might have in the technology.  And, because of  
what *would* happen, it *might* actually decrease sales and future profit  
potential!

I think NeXT has made the correct decisions concerning this, and I trust NeXT  
to continue making the correct decisions.  This may or may not involve the  
release of the FEE algorithms (and/or actual software) to the public at some  
time in the future.

I believe that there is more going on here than most of us even begin to  
realize.  And, I believe that NeXT knows best on this one.

--
Nevin Pratt, Digital Technology, Int'l    Orem, Ut
NeXTmail preferred, but ONLY at my REAL email address: nevin@dtint.dtint.com

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-- 
wierda@ltb.bso.nl (Gerben Wierda)     ||    #include <std/disclaimer.h>. Support
NeXTmail: gerben@rna.indiv.nluug.nl   ||    the League for Programming Freedom!
    "If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there."
    (From the Talmud(?), rephrased in) Lewis Carroll, "Alice in Wonderland".