Dorothy Denning

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

I thought the following note was needed to clear up an inadvertent
misunderstanding about a previous message.


As the editor of IP I believe, with respect to all opinions, but especially
those dealing with the defense of clipper, in the following quote from
Voltaire


"I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to
say it"


Dave


Date: Mon, 4 Apr 94 08:47:25 -0400
From: shap () viper cis upenn edu (Jonathan Shapiro)
To: farber () central cis upenn edu
Subject: Denning's Visit to Penn


For the IP list, if you like.


Several weeks ago I sent out a satirical note regarding the Clipper
discussion.  As you all undoubtedly know by now, this note has stirred
up a lot of controversy.  I owe Dorothy a public apology.


Any politician has the ability to make a senseless argument sound
reasonable and fair.  There are well-studied rhetorical techniques for
doing this.  I have seen some of these techniques used with disturbing
frequency in Dorothy's notes, and I assumed, based on the overall
quality of her writing and the fact that she is a public figure (on
this issue, at least) that the use of these techniques was deliberate.


Dorothy and I have since talked about this a bit, and it has become
clear that I was wrong.


Last week, I had an opportunity to meet Dorothy [ at Penn .. ed], and she
addressed several points of concern that I had not previously understood.


One issue that I haven't previously seen a clear explanation for is
the lack of public review for the encryption algorithm.  Dorothy's
explanation of this was concise and pointed: if the algorithm is made
public, it becomes possible for any third party to create the keys for
the algorithm, and these keys would not be escrowed.  This would
defeat the escrow mechanism entirely.


I still think that the Clipper initiative is ill-founded and contrary
to the national interest, but I acknowledge that the decision is
not at all obvious.




Jonathan S. Shapiro