re don t fight clipper chip subvert or replace it in article ygoland wright ygoland wright seas ucla edu the jester writes ignoring for the moment the question of patented processes such as public keys can the government stop me from using an encryption process following precedent in other areas the government is likely to put a tax on encryption technology once the tax is imposed it becomes a federal matter and suspicision of an unlicensed cryptographic tool will bring the batf or fbi tossing grenades into your house the batf appears to be the logical agency to enforce such regulations federal control over alocohol tobacco and firearms is similary based on taxes look at the fcc they won t allow sale of any receiever that can receive bands that are supposed to be private this has nothing to do with any desire to prevent harmful interference if the government can make a radio receiver illegal what makes you think they won t claim the right to control encryption john carr jfc athena mit edu
