🚀 go-pugleaf

I suppose I should respond to this; however, I must admit that my
heart is not in it.  Yet another crime, yet another means for the
government to make citizens criminals that does not affect the real
criminals.

In article <1992Nov3.090942.1626@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu>
denning@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu writes:

[A lot deleted about the usefulness of wiretaps to legitimate
government organizations.

   Nevertheless, wiretapping is not used much because the law requires
   that law enforcers show that other methods have been tried and have
   failed (or would be likely to fail) and because it is expensive.
   The average cost of a wiretap in 1991 was $45K.  Most of this goes
   to labor.  Those of you who think that law enforcers are likely to
   start tapping everyone with or without a warrant need to do a
   reality check on cost and government budgets.  Assuming there are
   about 100 million lines, the total cost to listen in on them all
   would be $4.5 trillion!

I am sorry, but this line of argument is absurd.  If the government
were to attempt wide-scale wiretaps, it would not be so stupid as to
tap each individual lines.  Most phone communications includes at
least one microwave link, and even those on land-lines run through
switching stations that radiate like the dickens.  Present technology
can easily intercept these.  If there were a large body of registered
keys, and access to these keys was obtained, large scale decryption
would be relatively easy.  The NSA does such large scale interceptions
now, as exposed in leaks from classified Congressional testimony.
They say it is for testing purposes, and the information is destroyed.

   Are there other approaches that would give you greater assurance
   against the government and still allow for meeting the legitimate
   needs of law enforcement?  If so, I'd love to hear them.

This assumes that the registration approach gives some assurance, and
meets "legitmate" needs.  Absurd.  Like gun control and other useless
legislation, the criminals will pay no attention to the registration
requirements, or will register altered keys.  Citizens who make one
byte mistakes in their entries or registrations will be prosecuted.
Citizens who care about their privacy will be prosecuted.  Criminals
will not be affected in the least.  At best, this will be another
charge tacked onto a long line, when a professional is finally
charged.

This is a very bad idea.  The search for a solution to an impossible
problem should not entice us into ridiculous solutions that do not
meet the needs, especially when they have nasty implications.

					Dave Barton
					dlb@hudson.wash.inmet.com