Subject: NON-REND: Clipper Proposal

From: Bob Mason <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 1994 17:27:55 -0500

For your information.

 please forward this to everyone you know...  this is important!
 
 For those of you who don't know, Clipper is a proposal circulating in the
 government right now whereby the government will require that all methods of
 encrypting data (including e-mail) have a 'backdoor' of sorts so that the
 government will be able to decrypt and read the data.  As you may have
 guessed, this is an infringement on your right to privacy.
 
 Below are details on a petition against Clipper, and how to sign your name
 to it.  Please read.

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

                 Electronic Petition to Oppose Clipper
                       Please Distribute Widely
 
 On January 24, many of the nation's leading experts in cryptography
 and computer security wrote President Clinton and asked him to
 withdraw the Clipper proposal.
 
 The public response to the letter has been extremely favorable,
 including coverage in the New York Times and numerous computer and
 security trade magazines.
 
 Many people have expressed interest in adding their names to the
 letter.  In  response to these requests, CPSR is organizing an
 Internet petition drive to oppose the Clipper proposal.  We will
 deliver the signed petition to the White House, complete with the
 names of all the people who oppose Clipper.
 
 To sign on to the letter, send a message to:
 
      [email-masked]
 
 with the message "I oppose Clipper" (no quotes)
 
 You will receive a return message confirming your vote.
 
 Please distribute this announcement so that others may also express
 their opposition to the Clipper proposal.
 
 CPSR is a membership-based public interest organization.  For
 membership information, please email [email-masked].  For more
 information about Clipper, please consult the CPSR Internet Library -
 FTP/WAIS/Gopher CPSR.ORG /cpsr/privacy/crypto/clipper

 =====================================================================
 
 The President
 The White House
 Washington, DC  20500
 
 Dear Mr. President:
 
      We are writing to you regarding the "Clipper" escrowed encryption
 proposal now under consideration by the White House.  We wish to
 express our concern about this plan and similar technical standards
 that may be proposed for the nation's communications infrastructure.
 
      The current proposal was developed in secret by federal agencies
 primarily concerned about electronic surveillance, not privacy
 protection.  Critical aspects of the plan remain classified and thus
 beyond public review.
 
      The private sector and the public have expressed nearly unanimous
 opposition to Clipper.  In the formal request for comments conducted
 by the Department of Commerce last year, less than a handful of
 respondents supported the plan.  Several hundred opposed it.
 
      If the plan goes forward, commercial firms that hope to develop
 new products will face extensive government obstacles. Cryptographers
 who wish to develop new privacy enhancing technologies will be
 discouraged.  Citizens who anticipate that the progress of technology
 will enhance personal privacy will find their expectations
 unfulfilled.
 
      Some have proposed that Clipper be adopted on a voluntary basis
 and suggest that other technical approaches will remain viable.  The
 government, however, exerts enormous influence in the marketplace, and
 the likelihood that competing standards would survive is small.  Few
 in the user community believe that the proposal would be truly
 voluntary.
 
      The Clipper proposal should not be adopted.  We believe that if
 this proposal and the associated standards go forward, even on a
 voluntary basis, privacy protection will be diminished, innovation
 will be slowed, government accountability will be lessened, and the
 openness necessary to ensure the successful development of the
 nation's communications infrastructure will be threatened.
 
      We respectfully ask the White House to withdraw the Clipper
 proposal.