re screw the people crypto is for hard core hackers spooks only jfc athena mit edu john f carr writes in article almaden ibm com ameline vnet ibm com ian ameline writes i also believe that someone will reverse engineer the clipper chip and knowlege of the algorithm will likely be fairly widespread the chip and algorithm are classified if you reverse engineer it and tell people you are likely to go to jail well i m not a lawyer but from what i can tell this is completely and utterly untrue you see this country has this thing called a constitution if you legitimately aquire the device and you yourself are not a government employee or otherwise encumbered i don t think they can stop you from revealing anything about the device you can determine remember the pentagon papers precedent the first amendment applies here the u s does not have an official secrets act we do have laws that will punish you for revealing what classified information you learned in your capacity as a government official contractor etc and we have laws that prohibit stealing such information however if they sell you the chip i can t see that they can make reverse engineering it and revealing the details illegal perry metzger pmetzger shearson com laissez faire laissez passer le monde va de lui meme
