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IP: Legislation Challenges Clinton's Grip on US Crypto Policy
From: Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Thu, 02 May 1996 12:15:39 -0400
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- _____ _____ _______ / ____| __ \__ __| ____ ___ ____ __ | | | | | | | | / __ \____ / (_)______ __ / __ \____ _____/ /_ | | | | | | | | / /_/ / __ \/ / / ___/ / / / / /_/ / __ \/ ___/ __/ | |____| |__| | | | / ____/ /_/ / / / /__/ /_/ / / ____/ /_/ (__ ) /_ \_____|_____/ |_| /_/ \____/_/_/\___/\__, / /_/ \____/____/\__/ The Center for Democracy and Technology /____/ Volume 2, Number 15 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A briefing on public policy issues affecting civil liberties online ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CDT POLICY POST Volume 2, Number 15 May 2, 1996 CONTENTS: (1) New Bill Challenges Clinton's Iron Grip on US Encryption Policy * Senators Go Online To Discuss Bill, Seek Input from Netizens * Broad Public Interest/Industry Coalition Announces Support for Encryption Export Relief, Announces Public Education Campaign (2) Background on the Encryption Policy Debate * Why should Internet Users Care About this Issue? * Pointers to More Information on the Encryption Policy Debate (3) Subscription Information (4) About CDT, contacting us ** This document may be redistributed freely with this banner in tact ** Excerpts may be re-posted with permission of <editor () cdt org> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) NEW EXPORT CONTROL REPEAL BILL CHALLENGES CLINTON ADMINISTRATION'S GRIP ON US ENCRYPTION POLICY In a move to replace the Cold War-era regulations on encryption with policies that make sense for the global Internet, Senators Burns (R-MT), Dole (R-KS), Leahy (D-VT), Pressler (R-SD), Wyden (D-OR), and others today introduced legislation to roll back the restrictions prohibiting the export of strong encryption technology. This historic legislation promises to inject the debate over privacy and security on the Internet into the 1996 presidential campaign. The bill, entitled the "Promotion of Commerce On-Line in the Digital Era (Pro-CODE) Act of 1996", is designed to encourage the widespread availability of strong, easy-to-use privacy and security technologies for the Internet. It is similar to a bill introduced in March by Senators Leahy and Burns, though the new bill does not contain criminal provisions or provisions imposing liability for third party key holders. Over 25 public interest organizations, and computer and communications companies, including Microsoft, Netscape, America Online, EFF, VTW, and Americans for Tax Reform, expressed support for this effort in a letter sent today to the sponsors of the bill. A list of signatories and excerpts of the letter are included below. Among other things, the "Pro-CODE" would: * Allow the export of "generally available" or "public domain" encryption software such as PGP and popular World Wide Web browsers without requiring NSA authority. * Allow the export of encryption hardware and software not available in the "mass market" or "public domain" under an export scheme that would allow up to roughly DES-strength (i.e., 56 bit key-length) security. if a product of similar strength is commercially available from a foreign supplier * Prohibit the government from imposing mandatory key-escrow encryption schemes domestically, or from restricting the sale of commercial encryption products within the United States * Prohibit the Department of Commerce from imposing government designed standards for encryption technologies (such as Clipper and Clipper II). For more information, including the text of the bill, analysis, and relevant background materials, visit CDT's Cryptography Policy Issues Page at (http://www.cdt.org/crypto/). CDT commends Senators Burns, Dole, Leahy, Wyden, Pressler, and the other sponsors of this proposal for their efforts to bring strong privacy and security technologies into the hands of Internet users, and for creating an opportunity for a national debate on the need to reform US policy towards encryption. We look forward to working with these and other members of Congress, the computer and communications industry, public interest groups, and the Internet Community as the bill makes its way through Congress. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ * SENATORS TO GO ONLINE TO DISCUSS BILLS, TAKE COMMENTS FROM NETIZENS In an effort to bring the Internet Community into the debate and encourage members of Congress to work with the Net.community on vital Internet policy issues, Senator Burns and Senator Leahy will participate in live, online discussions of the new legislation. CDT and VTW, who are helping to coordinate these events, will publish the transcripts of the sessions and encourage Netizens to participate. Please join Senator Burns live online to discuss the Pro-CODE bill on: * MONDAY, MAY 6 AT 9:00 PM ET IN AMERICA ONLINE'S NEWS ROOM AUDITORIUM Note that you will have to join AOL participate in this chat. (If you aren't currently an AOL member, you can obtain the software by either a) finding one of those pervasive free floppy disks, or b) by using ftp to get it from ftp.aol.com (ftp://www.aol.com/) * MONDAY, MAY 13 AT 9:00 ET AT HotWired's CLUB WIRED Visit http://www.hotwired.com/ for more information. Senator Leahy will also conduct sessions on America Online and HotWired in the next several weeks, dates and times are TBA (visit http://www.crypto.com for updates) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- * BROAD COALITION OF BUSINESSES, PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS ANNOUNCE SUPPORT FOR ENCRYPTION EXPORT RELIEF, LAUNCH PUBLIC EDUCATION EFFORT In a letter sent to Senators Burns (R-MT), Dole (R-KS), Leahy (D-VT), Pressler (R-SD) Wyden (D-OR), Murray (D-WA) and the other sponsors of the Pro-CODE proposal, a broad coalition of computer and communications companies, public interest and privacy organizations across the political spectrum announced support for legislative efforts to relax encryption export controls as well as plans to conduct a broad effort to raise public awareness on the need to reform encryption policy. The letter states, "Current U.S. Export controls and other regulations on encryption technologies are stifling electronic commerce on the Internet, handicapping U.S. industry in the global marketplace, and preventing computer users from protecting their privacy online." The full text of the letter is available at CDT's Crypto issues web page (http://www.cdt.org/crypto/). Some of the 25 groups joining the effort include the American Bankers Association, Americans for Tax Reform, America Online, Bellcore, Business Software Alliance, CDT, Compuserve, EFF, the Institute for Justice, Lotus, The Media Institute, Microsoft, Netscape, Novell, Oracle Corp., Pacific Telesis, People for the American Way, Prodigy, Securities Industry Association, Software Publishers Association, Sybase, the Telecommincations Industry Association, the Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW), and others. The groups also announced a large-scale public education campaign designed to raise public awareness of the importance of encryption to US competitiveness and individual privacy, including an "encryption education day" to be held in California's Silicon Valley in early July. The event will bring together industry leaders, members of Congress, encryption experts, and others to discuss the need to reform US encryption policy. Similar events, to be held throughout the US and on the Net, are also being planned. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (2) BACKGROUND ON THE ENCRYPTION POLICY DEBATE * Why is this issue important to Internet users? Encryption technologies are the locks and keys of the Information age. Encryption technology allows vital personal and commercial communications to travel securely over insecure and inexpensive communications networks like the Internet. For far too long, the debate over US encryption policy has been dominated by the NSA, FBI, and Clinton Administration, who continue to insist that privacy, security, and the competitive advantage of the US computer and communications industry must take a back seat to national security and law enforcement interests. While encryption products like PGP do allow the most computer-savvy among us to communicate securely, there are few strong, widely available, easy-to-use encryption applications available to Internet users. This is due in part to the Federal regulations which prohibit the export of strong encryption. As a result of these laws, US companies tend to build only one version of an encryption product, with relatively weak encryption, in order to sell to the global market. This results in the limited availability of strong encryption for domestic Internet users. Worse, the Clinton Administration has attempted to leverage the desire of US companies to sell strong encryption overseas to include features in products that will allow the Federal Government easy access to the plain text of encrypted communications. The Administration has used the standards promotion power of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to serve the narrow interests of the NSA as compared to the broader interest of Internet users and US businesses. These "key-escrow" proposals, known as Clipper and Clipper II, have met with stiff resistance from civil libertarians, Internet users, and the US computer and communications industries. While legitimate law enforcement and national security issues are important factors in this debate, the need for individual privacy and security for personal and commercial communications and data is vital to the future of the Internet and other interactive communications technologies. As a result, the outcome of this policy debate will have tremendous implications on your privacy and the future of the Internet. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS ISSUE For more information on the Encryption Policy Debate, please visit CDT's encryption policy issues page at http://www.cdt.org/crypto/ You can also join CDT, VTW, EFF, EPIC, People for the American Way, Wired Magazine, and others in an online campaign to promote secure communications online. For more information, visit: * The Encryption Policy Resource Page -- http://www.crypto.com/ * The Internet Privacy Coalition Page -- http://www.privacy.org/ipc * EFF's Crypto Page -- http://www.eff.org/ * EPIC's Crypto Page -- http://www.epic.org/crypto * VTW's Crypto Page -- http://www.vtw.org/
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- IP: Legislation Challenges Clinton's Grip on US Crypto Policy Dave Farber (May 02)