Burns Press Release
For immediate release:
Thursday, March 28, 1996

Contact: Matt Raymond (202) 224-8150
Randall Popelka (202) 224-6137

                      Burns Has "CODE" for E-Commerce

 Legislation Opens Internet for Commerce, Protects Intellectual Property


     WASHINGTON, D.C.   Montana Senator Conrad
Burns today announced the introduction of legislation designed
to promote electronic commerce on the Internet, protect
intellectual property rights and put American software
companies on a level playing field with their foreign
competitors.

     Dubbed the Promotion of Commerce On-Line in the
Digital Era, or "PRO-CODE," Act, the bill would end the
imposition of government-designed encryption (mathematical
codes used for computer security) standards and would promote
the use of commercial encryption. Current government
standards allow American software companies to export
products only with a level of encryption regarded as easily
defeated by "hackers." The effect has been to dampen the
growth of on-line commerce and to place American companies
at a competitive disadvantage with foreign firms not bound by
lower standards on the export of encrypted security.

     "Everything I do here in Washington, D.C., I do with the
interests of Montanans in mind," Burns said. "We live in a state
that, from northwest to southeast, spans the same distance as
from Washington, D.C., to Chicago. I can think of no better way
to make our wide-open spaces feel a lot smaller than by making
it easier to communicate and transact business over long
distances."

     The PRO-CODE Act restricts the U.S. Department of
Commerce from imposing government encryption standards that
were not: developed by the private sector, do not provide robust
security, require people to relinquish control of a decryption
key, do not have widespread commercial support and
acceptance, do not provide for the ability to securely interact
worldwide, and do not protect the privacy of users consistent
with constitutional protections. It also prohibits the department
from setting de facto encryption standards through the use of
export controls.

     In addition, the bill prohibits restrictions on the sale of
commercial encryption programs and products in interstate
commerce, prohibits mandatory key escrow (requiring that a
decryption key be placed in the hands of a third party), and
permitting the export of software and hardware if products with
comparable security is commercially available from a foreign
supplier.

     The Burns bill has strong bipartisan support and has
been referred to the Senate Commerce Committee, where Burns
chairs the Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space. He
announced his legislation via a phone call to the Computers,
Freedom, and Privacy conference at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.

     Burns earlier this month was the chief Senate co-sponsor of a bill
sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), a member of the Judiciary 
Committee, that also addresses encryption.