🚀 go-pugleaf

May 9, 1997
: 
:                 Senate Democrats are preparing legislation
:            that requires universities and other groups
:            receiving Federal grants to make their
:            communication networks snoopable by the
:            government, The Netly News has learned. The
:            draft also includes penalties for "unauthorized
:            breaking of another's encryption codes," and
:            restrictions on importing encryption products. 
: 
:                 At a Democratic leadership press briefing,
:            Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.) yesterday said his bill
:            slightly relaxed export rules in exchange for
:            greater federal control over crypto imports. But
:            what he appears to be truly aiming for is a
:            full-scale assault on your right to use whatever
:            encryption software you want in your own home. 
: [snip]
: 
:                 It's diabolical. Researchers already have to
:            comply with a legion of rules to qualify for grants.
:            Kerrey's proposed bill, called "The Secure Public
:            Network Act," would add yet another provision to
:            the fine print. It requires that "all encryption
:            software purchased with federal funds shall be
:            software based on a system of key recovery" and
:            "all encrypted networks established with the use
:            of federal funds shall use encryption based on a
:            system of key recovery." Key recovery, or key
:            escrow, technology enables law-enforcement
:            officials to obtain copies of the mathematical keys
:            needed to decipher messages. In other words,
:            someone else keeps a copy of your secret key
:            -- and some proposed bills say that the cops