92 lines
6.3 KiB
Plaintext
92 lines
6.3 KiB
Plaintext
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***************-Another presentation from the News of Freedom-***************
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02/13/94 Volume 1 Number 3
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======== ==================
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-This is our 3rd release, Enjoy!-
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The following is taken from the New York Times, The Week in Review,
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February 13, 1994
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..This is probably the most distrurbing release of our so-far. Well, I'll
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let you read it first & see what you think. He we go.
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In Silicon Valley some of the country's best computer hackers are talking
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about acts of civil disobedience in cyberspace. Their target is a plan by the
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Federal Government to discourage a proliferation coding schemes that insure
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electronic conversations are private - from everyone including the authorities.
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Under a plan being pushed by the Clinton Administation, the computer industry
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would be strongly encouraged to adopt a new data scrambling standard, embodied
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in a device called the Clipper Chip, that would allow law enforcement agencies,
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armed with the court orders, to eavesdrop on electronic communications.
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Earlier this month, Vice President Al Gore said the proposed standard was
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an important law and order issue for the Administration. The danger, he
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warned, is that unchecked computer coding technology will make it possible
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for terrorists and criminals to have secret electronic conversations. The
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White House is also pressing for legislation that would require telephone
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networks, cable companies and wireless communications services to install
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systems that allow law enforcers to listen in...
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While the Clipper system is voluntary today, a coalition of Silicon Valley
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business executives and civil liberties advocates argues that there is no
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guarentee that it won't be mandatory by a future Administration. In the
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meantime, it could become a de facto standard as companies that want to do
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Government business would have to install the chips in their products.
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Furthermore the Government could use existing export laws to require Clipper
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chips in any computers shipped to other countries. "They're asking us to
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ship millions of computers abroad with a chip stamped J. Edgar Hoover inside,"
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said John Gage, director of the science office at the Sun Microsystems Inc.,
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a maker of computer work stations based in Moutain View, Calif, "We refuse to
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do it."
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A Silicon Valley group called Cypherpunks, which wants to make free and
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powerful cryptography avaliable to the masses, has been discussing ways to trick
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officials into thinking the keys to the Clipper code have been stolen. Others
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are considering violating export restriction laws by sending thousands of
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copies of encoding software out of the country over the Internet. In fact, the
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ability to devise coding schemes - unbreakable even by the most powerful
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supercomputers - is so widespread that trying to impose a unviersal standard
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may be like trying to enforce Prohibition. Home-brew coding software can be
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easily exported by electronic runrunners on computer disks or instantly sent
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over electronic networks to any city in the world. With Clipper, which was
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developed by the National Security Agency, communications are mathematically
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scrambled with an unbreakable code, but an extra set of two keys - actually
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long numbers - would permit authorized third parties to listen in, with the
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same restrictions that now apply to wiretapping. As a safeguard, both keys
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would be required to minitor conversations. But some opponents argue that
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the system could still be abused by Government officals or clever hackers
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who are able to steal the code. They also point out that despite claims that
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the Clipper is necessary for national security, no other foreign Government
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or foreign company has indicated that it is willing to use a coding system
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that is breakable by the United Sates spying agencies. Even close allies
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like Canada and Britian have said that they are not willing to adopt Clipper.
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Last week, Michael Nelson, an Administration offical in charge of
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technology policy, broadcast an electronic mail message over the Internet
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to reassure computer users that the Government has no intention of enforcing
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mandatory encrytion. But skeptics remain unpersuaded. "They are utterly
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transfixed with the horrible vision of the nuclear armed terrorist," said
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John Perry Barlow, a founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a public
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interest computer group that is campaigning to stop the Clipper chip. "This
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is the last ditch effort of the old superpowers trying to establish imperial
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control over Cyberspace." Across the Internet, activists aren't waiting for
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the Government to back down. They're pressing ahead with their own coding
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software and disseminating it over the networks. A programmer named Philip
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Zimmerman has written free software called Pretty Good Privacy for protecting
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electronic mail messages. The program touched off a Justice Department
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investigation after it was sent overseas through international networks.
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Now Mr. Zimmerman is working on another free program that will allow personal
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computers, equipped with microphones, speakers and conventional high-speed
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modems, to act as secure telephones, allowing their users to have private
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conversations that can't be overheard. This promises to be about as popular
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with Clipper supporters as radar detectors are will the highway patrol.
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First, I'm sorry that this article is so long, but hey, I didn't write
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it: I was the one who typed it! Anyway, this is definitly a very interesting
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article. We should all congratulate Mr. Zimmerman for his attempts to stop
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the Clinton Administration from taking away our Freedom. This is a free
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society and the gov't has no right to tap our electronic conversations. If
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however it does become law, we'll just have to figure out another way to
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spoil their plans, like we have always done.
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-News of Freedom for Phreakers around the Globe-
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