[TriLUG] About the SSSCA....

rpjday rpjday at mindspring.com
Tue Sep 11 08:22:01 EDT 2001


  i'm not sure there's a parallel here, but is it worth comparing
the consequences of the SSSCA to the fiasco that was strong
encryption?

  recall that the federal government was terrified that really
effective encryption would fall into the hands of (gasp! horrors!)
the general public, who might do nefarious things with it like,
well, like encrypt stuff.  so americans had to plod along with
56-bit DES, while the rest of the world got the really good
stuff.

  is there a parallel?  certainly, the fact that the u.s. might
pass the SSSCA doesn't force any other country to follow suit,
which means the american consumer will be paying a surcharge for
this idiocy, while the rest of the world has no such penalty.

  can't an argument like this made in simple economic terms that
even a u.s. senator might understand?  then again ...

rday

-- 
Robert P. J. Day
Eno River Technologies, Durham NC
Unix, Linux and Open Source training


Microsoft:  Committed to putting the "backward" into "backward compatibility."




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