From: cme@ellisun.sw.stratus.com (Carl Ellison)
Subject: Re: Licensing of public key implementations
Organization: Stratus Computer, Software Engineering
Lines: 28
NNTP-Posting-Host: ellisun.sw.stratus.com

In article <1993Apr4.221640.8104@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> jebright@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (James R Ebright) writes:
>I guess we will have to wait for the time in the far future
>when everyone uses such good crypto that the NSA has no job.  Then the
>agency will be disbanded and its files opened after the approprate
>historical delay.  ;)

You've overlooked a fundamental Truth:

	both headcount and budget of any government agency are
	monotonic increasing functions.

Given that Truth, you need to look for what the agency can do to occupy
all those people and spend all that money when crypto is unbreakable.

Perhaps they could talk the world's telephone companies into making equipment
they could break into and tap.

Maybe they could convince people that distributed computing was a good idea
so that even the internal state of a process would be available for access
by wiretapping.

Maybe....

-- 
 - <<Disclaimer: All opinions expressed are my own, of course.>>
 - Carl Ellison                                        cme@sw.stratus.com
 - Stratus Computer Inc.       M3-2-BKW                TEL: (508)460-2783
 - 55 Fairbanks Boulevard ; Marlborough MA 01752-1298  FAX: (508)624-7488
