FC: DOJ quietly drafts USA Patriot II, includes anti-crypto section

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Thanks to Joe for being the first one to submit this... Here's a duplicate 
URL if the original is too slow:
http://www.privacy.org/patriot2draft.pdf

Note the draft legislation creates a new federal felony of willfully using 
encryption in the commission of a felony. "No more than five years" in 
prison plus a hefty fine. This seems at first glance to be remarkably 
similar to what was in the SAFE bill years ago. Here's a Politech message 
from 1998, before the politechbot.com archives:
http://www.inet-one.com/cypherpunks/dir.98.05.11-98.05.17/msg00046.html

Question: When encryption is omnipresent in everything from wireless 
networks to hard drives to SSH clients, might the basic effect of such a 
law be to boost potential maximum prison terms by five years?

Second question: Peer-to-peer piracy is arguably a federal felony under the 
NET Act. If a future peer-to-peer network uses encryption (as it should), 
does that mean that copyright-infringing users would be guilty of a double 
felony?

That's just one section of a 120-page bill. The rest is worth reading.

-Declan

---

Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2003 14:10:51 -0800 (PST)
From: Joseph Lorenzo Hall <jhall () astron Berkeley EDU>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Subject: Justice Department Drafts Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Act
 (fwd)

did you see this?
Joe

---------- Forwarded message ----------

New on The Public i:
Justice Department Drafts Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Act
Center Publishes Secret Draft of 'Patriot II' Legislation

The Bush Administration is preparing a bold, comprehensive sequel to
the USA Patriot Act that will give the government broad, sweeping new
powers to increase domestic intelligence-gathering, surveillance and
law enforcement prerogatives, and simultaneously decrease judicial
review and public access to information. The Center for Public
Integrity has obtained a draft, dated January 9, 2003, of this
previously undisclosed legislation and is making it available in full
text. The bill, drafted by the staff of Attorney General John Ashcroft
and entitled the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, has not
been officially released by the Department of Justice, although rumors
of its development have circulated around the Capitol.

To read the full report and documents, visit http://www.public-i.org

M. Asif Ismail
Production Editor
Center for Public Integrity
http://www.publicintegrity.org
(202) 466-1300, ext: 124




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