"Tipping-off" revisited

[Brian Gladman]

From: "Ben Laurie" <ben@algroup.co.uk>
To: <ukcrypto@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
Cc: "UK Crypto Posting" <stevee+brg@slimy.greenend.org.uk>
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2001 9:10 AM
Subject: Re: "Tipping-off" revisited


> Brian Gladman wrote:
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Charles Lindsey" <chl@clw.cs.man.ac.uk>
> > To: <ukcrypto@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
> > Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 6:58 PM
> > Subject: Re: "Tipping-off" revisited
> >
> > > On Thu, 8 Mar 2001 17:49:54 -0000
> > > "David Hansen" <davidh@spidacom.co.uk> said...
> > >
> > > >
> > > > On 8 Mar 01, at 15:47, Richard Clayton wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > I think it would be wise to avoid statements such as "I will only
> > > > > revoke this key if served with a s49 order with an s54 provision".
> > > > > That might not be keeping secret the "giving of the notice".
> > > >
> > > > On the contrary, that is an excellent form of words. I will modify
it
> > > > and add it to my signatures.
> > >
> > > So if I obtain your key by hacking your computer, and your passphrase
by
> > > peering over your shoulder, and then go around the net impersonating
you
> > > to your great detriment, you will STILL not revoke the key?
> >
> > I agree that it does not seem quite right in this form.
> >
> > Something more like:
> >
> > "If I revoke this key, the only circumstance in which I will not be
> > prepared to explain my reasons for doing so will be when UK
> > government authorities have stipulated that providing such an
> > explantaion would be unlawful"
>
> Hehe. Now I'm adding that to my web page. Anyone got a URL for RIP?

Hi Ben,

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

Thinking about this some more and trying to reduce the text to an absolute
minimum, I came up with as a possible alternative:

"If I revoke this key, I will always be willing to explain why I have
done so provided that the giving of such an explanation is lawful"

This is shorter and slightly less obvious as a direct challenge to RIPA

   Brian