Re: Short note on new Laws

[Rick Smith <rick_smith () securecomputing com>]

At 08:11 PM 6/26/98 -0400, Stout, Bill wrote:
> You legal types on this security list tell me if this is true:
>
> ---Digital Millennium Act of 1998 ---
> (Passed Senate, in House for review) see http://thomas.loc.gov/, search
> for 'Digital Millennium Act'.
>
> Makes many security tools, services or discussions (even this list)
> illegal ...

So this would make "Internet Cryptography" an illegal book, I suppose.
Personally I doubt they could make it stick in court. However, this might
force the issue of whether or not software is protected speech or something
else. This has interesting implications on export controls.

I'd be interested to know how this relates to the legal notion of "burglary
tools," which are things you buy at the hardware store, and apparently are
only illegal when used under suspicious circumstances (whatever that means).

> Makes firewalls (or firewall at ISPs) illegal ...

It sounds like the law is trying to turn ISPs into arms-length carriers of
bits. I wonder if this would make it illegal to an ISP to selectively offer
newsgroups, or if it obligates them to carry all of USENET or none of it.

Law is such a ham-handed way of doing these things.

Rick.
smith () securecomputing com