IP: Reno reports "suspicion" in industry crypto-negotiations

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

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http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0%2c1042%2c1953%2c00.html


time.com / The Netly News
May 1, 1998


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       Janet Reno has an undeniable gift for understatement. When asked
   yesterday how close the Justice Department was to closing a deal with
   the computer industry on compromise encryption legislation, she said
   they've had some "good discussions." Then came the zinger: "I think
   and certainly sense in newspaper comments and in some of the comments
   that I receive when I have the chance to sit down with industry that
   there is suspicion."


       Suspicion? Try animus, loathing and enmity. Even Commerce
   Secretary William Daley recently admitted that crypto-export regs
   supported by the Justice Department will result in "foreign dominance
   of this market," not to mention costing U.S. firms millions. But this
   long-standing tension hasn't stopped groups like Americans for
   Computer Privacy from sitting down for talks that are scheduled to
   last another month. Mind you, we're not too keen on the whole idea of
   feds and lobbyists deciding behind closed doors how much privacy
   Americans will enjoy -- but nobody else seems to have been invited.


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