encryption (was: Re: Owning a piece of my mind)

[Eric Eldred <eldred@mediaone.net>]

part 2 of a response to a long posting:

Ori Pomerantz wrote:

> > In that I am not hopeful.  The corporations with
> > their expensive lawyers are all in favor of strong protection,
> > and they have lobbied successfully the compliant polititians.
>         The suits (managers, lawyers and politicians) can pass any law
> they want. The question is whether or not such laws are going to be
> enforcable. This depends on the development of encryption technology more
> than any law on the books - it seems that we are moving towards having the
> ability to communicate (= pass information, including one which is in
> theory protected by IP laws) securly and to be able to post information
> anonymously.
>         For more information, see "Applied Cryptography" by Bruce
> Schneier, chapters 2-6 (second edition).

Why do you think encryption makes enforcement of 
copyright more difficult in the digital, online
realm?  

Certainly the software and business software
alliances have not found it beyond their powers
to crack down on copyright infringement, even
without any change in the laws.  But with the
new digital copyright laws their powers are
increased even more, and the penalties increased
too.

The connectedness and public nature of the
Internet makes it hard to conceal such criminal
activity.  Yes, you can get a hushmail account
like I do, and we can trade encrypted email
through our hushmail accounts, and that email
might include attached copyrighted works.  But
when you start to use them on your own machine
then you run the risk of being exposed later.

I am in favor of citizens having strong encryption.
I am also in favor of the rights of citizens to
speak out openly without having to resort to
sneaking around encrypting everything.  I am in
favor of having the government and corporations
keep their hands off my and your privacy.  In a
crowd we have the right to remain anonymous. We
should not have to give up any of our rights to
engage fully in the online society. We should have
control over personal information that corporations
wish to use to make their e-commerce more lucrative.

But I am afraid that most citizens are all too ready
to give up any possibility of privacy if it means
they are given in return some minor conveniences,
and they are assured that only the criminals will
be the ones at risk.
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