<story><title>Why Are We Fighting the Crypto Wars Again?</title><url>https://medium.com/@stevenlevy/b5310a423295#.v775mh4mp</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cantrevealname</author><text>The premise of the crypto wars are that we don&amp;#x27;t really have a &lt;i&gt;right&lt;/i&gt; to encryption.&lt;p&gt;Shouldn&amp;#x27;t we stop pussyfooting around this issue and instead demand that encryption is a fundamental right just as freedom of speech is a fundamental right?&lt;p&gt;Since everything we say and do today involves computers and the Internet, we can&amp;#x27;t have free speech, privacy, liberty, or personal security without encryption.&lt;p&gt;We should assert that right. We should have the right to use encryption for our communications and to secure our documents at rest, and never be compelled to reveal a key or passphrase. Doesn&amp;#x27;t this sound like something that would have been in the Bill of Rights if it were written today?&lt;p&gt;We can still mention all the other reasons why encryption is good and beneficial, but always starting our conversations with the words: encryption is a fundamental right.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dbcurtis</author><text>Yes, we should assert that right. And there is no reason not to go after a constitutional amendment to clarify the right. It should not be necessary, I believe it is already covered. But the equal rights amendment should not have been necessary, either. In fact, the federalists thought the bill of rights was unnecessary. It was the Anti-Federalists that drove the first 10 Amendments.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why Are We Fighting the Crypto Wars Again?</title><url>https://medium.com/@stevenlevy/b5310a423295#.v775mh4mp</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cantrevealname</author><text>The premise of the crypto wars are that we don&amp;#x27;t really have a &lt;i&gt;right&lt;/i&gt; to encryption.&lt;p&gt;Shouldn&amp;#x27;t we stop pussyfooting around this issue and instead demand that encryption is a fundamental right just as freedom of speech is a fundamental right?&lt;p&gt;Since everything we say and do today involves computers and the Internet, we can&amp;#x27;t have free speech, privacy, liberty, or personal security without encryption.&lt;p&gt;We should assert that right. We should have the right to use encryption for our communications and to secure our documents at rest, and never be compelled to reveal a key or passphrase. Doesn&amp;#x27;t this sound like something that would have been in the Bill of Rights if it were written today?&lt;p&gt;We can still mention all the other reasons why encryption is good and beneficial, but always starting our conversations with the words: encryption is a fundamental right.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>chongli</author><text>Fundamental rights are not a &lt;i&gt;whitelist&lt;/i&gt; of approved behaviours. Just because there&amp;#x27;s no official document sitting in archive saying we have the right to encryption doesn&amp;#x27;t mean it&amp;#x27;s not a fundamental right.</text></comment>