FC: Int'v with Microsoft's Scott Charney on benefits of key escrow

[R. A. Hettinga]

--- begin forwarded text


Status:  U
Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2002 19:06:49 -0800 (PST)
From: Declan McCullagh <declan at well.com>
To: politech at politechbot.com
Subject: FC: Int'v with Microsoft's Scott Charney on benefits of key escrow
Sender: owner-politech at politechbot.com
Reply-To: declan at well.com

Politech archive on Scott Charney:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=charney

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2002 22:47:41 -0500 (EST)
From: Charles Platt <cp at panix.com>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan at well.com>
Cc: cp at panix.com
Subject: More Charney

Declan, I believe that since I was offered an interview by a public
official, for subsequent publication, and since the magazine formally
rejected the feature and explicitly told me I could offer it elsewhere, I
have the (copy)right to offer you the following excerpts for distribution.

---

Below are a few excerpts from the interview that Scott
Charney granted when he was head of the computer crime
division of the Department of Justice. These quotes were
offered to me for publication in Wired magazine, but the
magazine chose not to use the feature. Subsequently, with Mr.
Charney's permission, I adapted some of the material for a
feature in the L. A. Times, and he made some additional
statements at that time, during a telephone interview.

I had the impression, while listening to Mr. Charney, that he
was speaking personally. I didn't get the sense that I was
receiving canned policy statements dictated via the Clinton
administration. However I must add that although Mr. Charney
saw his interview transcript shortly after the time I wrote
it (more than six years ago), he has not seen it since then,
and his personal views may have changed since then.

--Charles Platt

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Charney on key escrow:

"if you look at the debate at cryptography, are we better off
with more privacy and less law enforcement? I think key
escrow makes a lot of sense for many reasons, not just law
enforcement reasons. We invade privacy under important
constraints such as the fourth amendement. But if a judge
says we can go into someone's home, this is to protect
society, which is a right for society at the expense of the
individual. Suppose you buy a bigger lock, we bring a bigger
sledgehammer. But cryptography is a lock so strong, society
cannot penetrate even if 1) everyone agrees it's very
important, 2) it will save many many lives, and 3) a court
has authorized it after a neutral judicial review. People
communicating about blowing up an airline--we can't
intercept, so 400 people die. There are those who say that's
the price of privacy, but you have to be able to live with
the choices you make, and I'd rather save the 400 people."

Charney on data monitoring:

"There's a concern about law enforcement engaging in illegal
wiretaps, and there's no doubt you can find cases in history
to justify that concern. But there's no evidence for
systematic abuse of that process. I'd rather think that if a
judge orders access to data and it satisfies the fourth
amendement test, it should be permitted."

Charney's computer background:

"I was programming in Cobol when I was eight. My father went
to MIT and got into computers in the vacuum tube days. Then
he worked for Seligman[?], mutual fund co on Wall Street, he
wrote one of the first programs for processing mutual fund
checks by computer. He had me writing flow charts, then do
the punch cards, go into the air conditioned room with a
Honeywell computer, we'd process the cards. So I had a long
informal history with computers."

"I had a PC relatively early on. The first machine was XT
class. And I program as a hobby, for the department, mostly
in FoxPro, dBASE IV. I've toyed with C but I don't have the
time."

Charney on influencing the evolution of net culture:

"It's fun to be a part of it and have some small impact on
what the future's going to look like and whether we're going
to like it. The players include civil libertarians,
academics, policy makers--and law enforcement is an important
part of that. You only have to look at the front cover of
Time magazine to wonder if criminal law is going to drive the
internet. The answer is, it should not. The goal is to
minimize harm but allow the benefits to be maximized."

"I think it's really important that we find ways to protect
children, but not paint with such a broad brush that we chill
the use of the net. Computer crime is a very important thing.
If people abuse the networks, that's trouble. But you don't
want networks in the next century to be driven by the
computer crime issue. There's so many social benefits in the
net, the democratizing factor, the free speech factor, we
need to preserve those benefits while minizing the harm."

-------------------------------------------------------------





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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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