Criminals and strong encryption

[Carl Ellison]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

At 06:38 PM 4/28/98 +0100, Dave Howe wrote:
>Lets face facts here - a criminal is not going to follow a law that puts 
>him at a disadvantage - that's why he is a criminal!  Laws are only there 
>to be obeyed by the law abiding.......

Perhaps because this is a UK list, I'm reminded of Miss Marple who was fond 
of saying one should ignore the words and look at the actual events.  What 
if we assume that your statement is equally obvious to the proponents of 
GAK.  That would imply that the real targets of these proposals aren't 
criminals but rather the law abiding.  If that were true, a number of 
apparent illogical things would melt away -- such as the folly of trying to 
legislate SIGINT openings against an active adversary.

Now, I'm not saying this is the real drive behind GAK (although I have read 
occasional reports about massive sweeps of all communications of law abiding 
persons).  I'm just speculating that this is what Miss Marple might say.

 - Carl

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.5.3

iQCVAwUBNUYtrhN3Wx8QwqUtAQEmEwP/Z/daDyvCpNQ37syKRBvIXlNGYroW6/Zk
NL926NiLUFmPW0ZmYDfNrPgtjYaaffgVyiBhtjZa8fypRY0f+ItD5gUflOs++Y3A
deQQEQXmEgkmV5eCF3Ck6lu6XVvvkL2H89vr3467CmRQXzU0UKtY/+i2x/O5zhk0
hMQ2uakPA4E=
=Qds9
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----