"EFF has provided unique leadership by helping everyone involved in building and using the new electronic networks to understand the importance of preserving core democratic values in this new medium," said Johnson. "The founders of EFF have pushed vigorously for networks that preserve freedom of speech, privacy and enhanced opportunities for all. I am excited to have a chance to participate in EFF's continuing discussion of these vital questions."

"I'm honored and excited to be joining the board," said Glaser about his involvement in EFF. "In its brief history EFF has established itself as the leading organization working to ensure that the Electronic Frontier is organized and run in accordance with fundamental American principles of openness, democracy, and social justice. I hope to help EFF extend its work into the arena of video and multimedia information."

Johnson and Glaser join with other members of the Foundation's Board of Directors, including EFF co-founders Mitchell Kapor and John Perry Barlow, Jerry Berman, John Gilmore, Stewart Brand, Esther Dyson, and David Farber.

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Subject: Notes from House Hearing on Cryptography Export Controls

October 12, 1993
House Foreign Affairs Committee
Subcommittee on Economic Policy, Trade, and the Enviornment

Hearing on mass market cryptography and export controls
Rep. Sam Gejdenson (D-Conn.), Chair

Committee Members present:

Gejdenson, Cantwell (D-Wash.), Fingerhut (D-Ohio), Rohrbacher (R-Calif.) Manzullo (R-Ill.)

Witnesses:

PANEL 1 (Open)

PANEL 2 (Secret Session)

NSA representative

Opening Statement of Gejdenson:

"This hearing is about the well intentioned attempts of the National Security Agency to try to control the uncontrollable.... The NSA itself acknowledges that if you have a long distance telephone line and a modem, you can send this software anywhere in the world. If you have a computer and a modem you can take this software off of the Internet anywhere in the world.... I do not question the value of the information sought by the National Security Agency. But once it is determined that the dispersion of this software cannot be controlled, then however much we might want to protect our ability to obtain information, it is beyond our means to do so. Just as in the case of telecommunications, the National Security Agency is attempting to put the genie back in the bottle. It won't happen; and a vibrant and productive sector of American indsutry may be sacrificed in the process."

The main points raised by witnesses were these:

1. DES and other strong encryption which is barred by ITAR is in the public domain and available on the global market from foreign software manufacturers:

2. Foreign DES implementations are just as good as US versions. Surprisingly enough, this is a contentious issue. Some members of the committee seemed to have been told by someone or another that foreign versions of DES may not be as strong as those that are made in the USA. If this were true, then export controls might still be justified despite the numerous foreign versions of DES on the market. In my view, this is a pretty desperate argument.

3. Lots of money is being lost by US software/hardware vendors:

4. People want their privacy

Committee Responses: Overall, the committee was quite sympathetic to the witnesses. Chairman Gejdenson seemed very supportive of changing export controls. Rep. Dana Rohrbacher, no flaming liberal, said, "the cold war is over. I sympathize with everything that has been said here."

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Subject: Administration Expands FOIA Rights

Attorney General Janet Reno specified some changes the Administration will be making in its enforcement of FOIA. First, the Department of Justice will no longer allow agencies the excuse that there MIGHT be a legal basis for withholding information. Instead, agencies will be encouraged to disclose unless there is a clear legal reason that prevents disclosure. "In short, it shall be the policy of the U.S. Department of Justice to defend the assertion of a FOIA exemption only in those cases where the agency reasonably foresees that disclosure would be harmful to an interest protected by that exemption."

Attorney General Reno also announced that the Department of Justice would be reviewing regulations implementing FOIA and forms used in the process. DoJ will also strive to reduce the current FOIA backlogs over the coming year.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) was especially pleased that President Clinton refered to enhancing "public access through the use of electronic information systems." EFF believes that electronic access to information is critical, and EFF has been working with Congress (through support of Senator Patrick Leahy's (D-VT) Electronic FOIA amendments and other legislation) and members of the Administration to ensure that electronically stored information is as easily obtainable as printed documents. EFF Director of Legal Services Shari Steele commented, "We are encouraged that the Clinton Administration has recognized the importance of this method of information dissemination. In this electronic era, it is critical that information be made available in a format that is most useful to citizens as they inquire about the activities of their government."

After over a decade of government whittling away at citizen access to public information, EFF is pleased to see this shift in priorities. "We applaud the Clinton Administration for taking this first step toward restoring our vital right to access information," Ms. Steele continued, "and we are hopeful that the Administration will take further steps in this direction, particularly when it comes to information that is stored electronically."

A copy of the Administration's memorandum is available hereor for anonymous ftp at /pub/EFF/legislation/freedom-info-act-10.4.93 on ftp.eff.org.

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Subject: UK Cryptoprivacy Association Meeting

At the offices of:

FOREST
4th floor
2 Grosvenor Gardens
London SW1W 0DH

[ FOREST is located at the corner of Grosvenor Gardens and Hobart Place, a couple of blocks west of Victoria Station. There is a taxi shelter across the street from the office. Those who have trouble finding this location can page Russell Whitaker on 081-812-2661, and stand by the payphone or cellphone for a callback. ]

The UK Cryptoprivacy Association has its roots in the U.S. cypherpunk advocacy of strong personal cryptography. The next UKCA meeting, to be held at the offices of FOREST (see the above), will feature roundtable discussion on such issues as:

Attendees are encouraged to bring and exchange diskettes with their PGP public keys. A few of us will bring along our MS-DOS laptops, to sign public keys on site. In the interest of speeding things along, it is recommended that all keys signed at the meeting be submitted later, with their newly appended signatures, to the PGP Key Server at Demon Internet Services. Send a message with the subject line "help" to pgp-public-keys@demon.co.uk, for more information. PGP (Phil Zimmermann's "Pretty Good Privacy") public key encryption software can be obtained by ftp from, among other places, ftp.demon.co.uk in the directory /pub/pgp. Versions include, but are not limited to, Unix, MS-DOS, Archimedes, and MacOS. Full source code is available.

This meeting will also feature discussion on the upcoming First European Conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy (ECFP '93) to be held on 20 November 1993, which will feature speakers including John Gilmore, David Chaum, and Duncan Frissell, as well as a representative of the UK's Data Protection Registry.

Russell Earl Whitaker
ECFP Ventures Ltd
russell@eternity.demon.co.uk

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