IRELAND AND DTI

[David Swarbrick]

In message <199807021703_MC2-5204-54FB@compuserve.com>, nigel hickson
<nigelhickson@compuserve.com> writes
>
>DTI:  We are not all brain dead.

I am sure not

>  I am not responsible for new White Paper
>(XNP are) but it does not suggest repealing GSN or altering OGELs.  It just
>suggests (as EU have done) that where a product is controlled (eg
>encryption software) the intangible export of that (by fax or E mail)
>should also be. 

But this does need to be thought through properly. Where you have
material which is clearly likely to be of military use, that is one
thing. It is not what we have here. What we do have here is a bunch of
very, very, weary intelligence services and governments fighting a
Custers last stand against the possibility that their populations will
discover that they can communicate direct with each other in privacy and
outside the control of those governments. 

Encryption software _was_ principally military use. If governments, our
government, approached these things honestly, they would admit that the
military use of encryption is now completely ancillary. Anybody who
wants it has it. Attempts to control it have nothing to do with
preventing the baddies getting hold of encryption, and everything to do
with making it impractical for individuals and businesses to use it. For
a department calling itself the Department for Trade and Industry to
take the lead role in this doublespeak is doubly shameful.

The latest DTI proposals for licensed CAs (or whatever) are designed to
fail. As a solicitor responsible for attempting every now and then to
communicate privately with clients, there is no way at all that I could
use the proposed system. It would be crass negligence, and the DTI must
know it.

The attempt to expand the Wassenaar agreement beyond the actual export
of physical-type products to bring in the control of the expression of
ideas is shameful. It smacks of medieval popes insisting that the world
is flat, and seeking to criminalise those glimpse other possibilities.

-- 
David Swarbrick, Solicitor. Brighouse, West Yorkshire.
Tel: +44(0)1484 722531 Fax: +44(0)484 716617 Pager 04325 349742
e-mail david@swarb.demon.co.uk
URL http://www.swarb.co.uk/swarbrick/ - home of the law-index to 8100+ cases
'damn fine webbery"