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Date:      Wed, 15 Oct 1997 23:43:32 -0600 (MDT)
From:      Wes Peters <softweyr@xmission.com>
To:        "Christopher R. Bowman" <crb@Glue.umd.edu>
Cc:        chat@freebsd.org
Subject:   Bill of Wrongs (was Re: C2 Trusted FreeBSD?)
Message-ID:  <199710160543.XAA12352@obie.softweyr.ml.org>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SOL.3.95q.971014130142.2752A-100000@stochastic.eng.umd.edu>
References:  <199710141240.FAA01458@usr02.primenet.com> <Pine.SOL.3.95q.971014130142.2752A-100000@stochastic.eng.umd.edu>

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Christopher R. Bowman writes, w.r.t. the FBI position on encryption:
 > The real problem is that it violates article four of the bill of rights.
 > To force everyone to leave their front door open because
 > a few people might be storing contraband is unreasonable and
 > thus these actions violate our 4 amendment rights.  Sadly
 > our Supreme Court hasn't quite seen it this way (see for example
 > court decisions up holding sobriety check points) and we the
 > people have refused to help them see the light.

Freeh's position also violates the first amendment; the constitution
places no limits on how we are allowed to express ourselves.  Encryption
(and its cousin, encoding) are merely forms of expression.  This is why
the government restrictions on crypto technology have always raised the
spectre of "national security," which is government-speak for "damn the
constitution, full authority ahead!"

-- 
          "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"

Wes Peters                                                       Softweyr LLC
http://www.xmission.com/~softweyr                       softweyr@xmission.com



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