Legislating for the Long Term?

[Stefek Zaba]

Nicholas writes:

> What we need are the small, quick legislative tweaks that will help
> electronic commerce get itself established, not elaborate underpinnings for
> elaborate infrastructures that will become out of date before anyone has
> decided who might build what on top (and meanwhile make the whole
> enterprise seem far more difficult than it really is).

Amen to that. This is in a nutshell a major part of what was so ill-conceived
about the previous DTI proposals - they ignored existing practice (public-key
crypto, CAs as directory publishers, semi-closed-group trading circles), and
why the revised "indicators of emerging policy" are still muddled in conflating
digital signature recognition with covert access to encrypted material, as
recently eloquently and concisely pointed out by Microsoft in their recent
communication ( http://www.liberty.org.uk/cacib/legal/crypto/microsoft.html ).
Now, if even a lawyer like Nicholas, and a software company whose OSs
I've been known to be rude about, can see this - let alone an all-wise,
all-seeing individual like me :-) - what a shame the UK authorities seem
fixated on key escrow as the only appropriate way of responding to law
enforcement concerns!

Stefek