4 ms·

A strong encryption ban would not make math into contraband. It might make implementations of some small subset of math into something that's illegal under some

A strong encryption ban would not make math into contraband. It might make implementations of some small subset of math into something that's illegal under some constraints. SFAIK, you can encrypt away all you want so long as nobody needs it to comply with a court order or summons. "Computer security" embraces that ELINT now includes hacking type activities. The most "Dude, epic" version is the STUXNET story.

Zigurd 11y ago
You are minimizing the problem. Just as the drug War has brought with it absurdities like making "fake drugs" such a bag of powdered sugar illegal, it's a lead pipe cinch that files full of random numbers will become illegal because they might be making it more difficult to spot encrypted content. This, along with the ham fisted tactics to blackmail people into becoming informants will lead to the same toxic enforcement environment found in the Drug War being imposed on software.
- ArkyBeagle 11y ago
  I think you're projecting the present state of affairs forward. Honestly? I don't know enough to think that's likely. The WOD happened, by one story, because Nixon figured out that some of the heroin the CIA was transporting with Air America was finding its way to troops in the field. That met with general approval so they generalized it. For the Greatest and Silent Generations, the sheer lack of adequate information about drugs was impossible to explain. It's not clear to me that a mechanism related to encryption is in the wind. Sure, there's overreach. And then there isn't. just being an encryptyor isn't enough - you have to also be affiliated with something they consider Nasty. After all, look how the blacklisting thing worked out. It was all hell for people like Dalton Trumbo. But in a reasonably non-ideological way of looking at it, Trumbo was an actual Stalinist.
  - Zigurd 11y ago
    Attend a protest and you are interesting enough to be watched: http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a32675/the-fbi-and-the-protesters/ http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a32675/the-fbi...

Zigurd 11y ago

You are minimizing the problem. Just as the drug War has brought with it absurdities like making "fake drugs" such a bag of powdered sugar illegal, it's a lead pipe cinch that files full of random numbers will become illegal because they might be making it more difficult to spot encrypted content. This, along with the ham fisted tactics to blackmail people into becoming informants will lead to the same toxic enforcement environment found in the Drug War being imposed on software.

ArkyBeagle 11y ago
I think you're projecting the present state of affairs forward. Honestly? I don't know enough to think that's likely. The WOD happened, by one story, because Nixon figured out that some of the heroin the CIA was transporting with Air America was finding its way to troops in the field. That met with general approval so they generalized it. For the Greatest and Silent Generations, the sheer lack of adequate information about drugs was impossible to explain. It's not clear to me that a mechanism related to encryption is in the wind. Sure, there's overreach. And then there isn't. just being an encryptyor isn't enough - you have to also be affiliated with something they consider Nasty. After all, look how the blacklisting thing worked out. It was all hell for people like Dalton Trumbo. But in a reasonably non-ideological way of looking at it, Trumbo was an actual Stalinist.
- Zigurd 11y ago
  Attend a protest and you are interesting enough to be watched: http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a32675/the-fbi-and-the-protesters/ http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a32675/the-fbi...