encryption technology (was : Re: OT?: Legal question about p2p)

[Vaughn Treude]

On Tue, 2005-05-31 at 20:58, Jeff Garland wrote:
> On Tue, 31 May 2005 18:09:59 -0700, Vaughn Treude wrote
> 
> > industry.)  My information is dated, though, so perhaps this has been
> > affected by the Police State (oops, I mean PATRIOT) Act.
> 
> .libertarian rant on
> 
> I'm sorry, that's silly -- the constitution was thrown out long, long ago. 
> The patriot act was a big nothing in comparison to what came before.  You
> should read up on how old Abe Lincoln jailed 14,000 dissidents, closed down
> 300 newspapers that disagreed with his view, etc.  
> 

I'm with you on that one, Jeff.  I'm glad to hear that more and more
people are seeing Dishonest Abe for the scoundrel he was.  Wilson and
FDR were just as bad, if not worse.  But at least those three presidents
served during declared wars of limited duration.  After those wars, US
citizens got most (though not all) of their liberties back.  This "war"
we have now is both undeclared and indefinite.

And though the government feels free to break its own laws, it is useful
to know their "logic", because they need to at least keep up the
appearance of legality, so the masses don't realize the game is fixed. 
That's why, I think, encryption hasn't yet been totally outlawed yet. 
(That and the fact that our economy NEEDS some form of security to
function in the internet age.)  So instead of just banning it, they
classified encryption as a "munition."  

That's also why they didn't just throw Phil Zimmerman into a gulag
somewhere.  It's my understanding that part of the government's case
against him was patent infringement - the fact that the
Rivest-Shamir-Adelman algorithm that's at the heart of the PGP system is
patented.  (Zimmerman didn't invent public key encryption, just like
Henry Ford didn't invent the auto; but he did make it useful for the
general population.)  And yes, I do think its absurd to allow a
mathematical formula to be patented, but it does make it easier for the
government to control.

> .libertarian rant off
> 

I have that problem as well.  :-)  My relatives, especially my inlaws
have learned not to mention politics around me, especially their beloved
Dubya and his Excellent Adventure in Iraq.  (To be fair, there are a few
Democrats in my family as well but I think they believe I'm just as
crazed as the rest do.)  It's a problem when most people don't read
about history outside of school, or get news other than from TV or talk
radio.

Vaughn

> Sorry that was just waiting to come out...
> 
> Jeff
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