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Sometimes it is an inevitable consequence of the march of technological progress that certain legal and civil artifacts of previous eras must fall away, and we

Sometimes it is an inevitable consequence of the march of technological progress that certain legal and civil artifacts of previous eras must fall away, and we need to let that run its natural course, instead of trying to put up pointless and ineffectual -- but costly and frightening -- bureaucratic boondoggles in its way. We will just have to live with the fact that secure end-to-end electronic communication and storage encryption that is not accessible by law enforcement is available to anyone who really wants it. For the most part, this is good news for privacy, civil rights and protection from information crime; in a few extremely marginal cases, like terrorist plotters and whatnot, this is bad, but we can't have our cake and eat it too. Trying to stop it, roll it back, pretend it doesn't exist, etc. is a pointless waste of time.

bcl 15y ago
As is trying to legislate it away, which is what the authorities' reaction usually is.
innoncent1 15y ago
200 years ago, every man could own a rifle and all rifles were assault rifles. Citizens were equal with their governments. They could ban together and form armies. Today, looking at the vast differences between arms that governments posses versus what their citizens may legally posses and you'll soon realize that the only technological equality we have remaining is strong encryption thus the governments attack that technology accusing everyone who uses it of being either a state sponsored terrorist or a child porn monster (why else would anyone use it... what do they have to hide). They themselves use encryption extensively, but they don't want me and you to do so. The United States once classified some encryption algorithms as a munition and banned exports. We citizens can't buy tanks or air craft carriers or satellites, but we can legally use AES 256 encryption (at least for now) and we should. That's all we have left.
- abalashov 15y ago
  Indeed; it was said best below by another commenter: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3253811 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3253811
- jws 15y ago
  every man could own a rifle In 1810, the 1 in 6 Americans that were enslaved were not allowed to own guns. In another twenty years even free black men were no longer allowed to own guns (varied by state). Not terribly relevant, but it is easy to forget where we come from and how far we've come in a relatively short time. the only technological equality we have remaining is strong encryption – um, I can think of too many counter examples to even begin. The United States once classified some encryption algorithms as a munition and banned exports. – remember to thank Al Gore for having the stones to let that be lifted and bringing us a fine SSL future with secure(ish) commerce in the Internet. (Ancient history, back in his VP days.)
  - Create 15y ago
    I am not convinced, that all that much has changed at the core -- despite Ed Bernay's work and the American Dream. Today, 1 in 6 Americans that were enslaved are rotting in prison etc. Another sign of a larger problem tp is alluding to. And Al Gore -- besides obviously having invented the InterTubes -- was only reacting post festa. The PGP printout-book was scanned Down And Under (take that Regulators!), and free implementations of strong crypto were popping up everywhere (ie .de). Banning export was useless. If you can't beat them, join them, and Let the Commerce Profit! Recent history, given his commercial interests of the Intertube days (iGOOG Board). The Doors (of revolving perceptions :).

bcl 15y ago

As is trying to legislate it away, which is what the authorities' reaction usually is.

innoncent1 15y ago

200 years ago, every man could own a rifle and all rifles were assault rifles. Citizens were equal with their governments. They could ban together and form armies. Today, looking at the vast differences between arms that governments posses versus what their citizens may legally posses and you'll soon realize that the only technological equality we have remaining is strong encryption thus the governments attack that technology accusing everyone who uses it of being either a state sponsored terrorist or a child porn monster (why else would anyone use it... what do they have to hide). They themselves use encryption extensively, but they don't want me and you to do so. The United States once classified some encryption algorithms as a munition and banned exports. We citizens can't buy tanks or air craft carriers or satellites, but we can legally use AES 256 encryption (at least for now) and we should. That's all we have left.

abalashov 15y ago
Indeed; it was said best below by another commenter: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3253811 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3253811
jws 15y ago
every man could own a rifle In 1810, the 1 in 6 Americans that were enslaved were not allowed to own guns. In another twenty years even free black men were no longer allowed to own guns (varied by state). Not terribly relevant, but it is easy to forget where we come from and how far we've come in a relatively short time. the only technological equality we have remaining is strong encryption – um, I can think of too many counter examples to even begin. The United States once classified some encryption algorithms as a munition and banned exports. – remember to thank Al Gore for having the stones to let that be lifted and bringing us a fine SSL future with secure(ish) commerce in the Internet. (Ancient history, back in his VP days.)
- Create 15y ago
  I am not convinced, that all that much has changed at the core -- despite Ed Bernay's work and the American Dream. Today, 1 in 6 Americans that were enslaved are rotting in prison etc. Another sign of a larger problem tp is alluding to. And Al Gore -- besides obviously having invented the InterTubes -- was only reacting post festa. The PGP printout-book was scanned Down And Under (take that Regulators!), and free implementations of strong crypto were popping up everywhere (ie .de). Banning export was useless. If you can't beat them, join them, and Let the Commerce Profit! Recent history, given his commercial interests of the Intertube days (iGOOG Board). The Doors (of revolving perceptions :).