---

New UK law threatens to cripple Net commerce

“The British Government is currently consulting Business on
legislation to regulate the use of strong cryptography in the
UK.”

Date: Mon, 08 Mar 1999 16:57:45 +0000
From: Stefan Magdalinski <stefan@isness.org>
Subject: New UK law threatens to cripple Net commerce


        PRIVACY AND NET COMMERCE AT RISK
        http://www.stand.org.uk/


        Like all your incoming e-mail, this message could have
        been read by anyone. It has passed through many
        computers on its way to you. Each of those machines is
        vulnerable to malicious monitoring. Your outgoing mail
        is the same. So is your Web browsing. Given enough
        effort, all of your Net communications, personal or
        commercial, are insecure.

        This is a problem for the Net - but there is a fix. The
        fix is strong cryptography. It's a simple, mathematical
        process which can protect data on the Net from prying
        eyes and mischief. It's easy to set up, straightforward
        to use, and all the relevant technology is in the
        public domain.

        The British Government is currently consulting Business
        on legislation to regulate the use of strong cryptography
        in the UK. We believe it is of vital importance that the
        wider net community make their voices heard also.
        We know that the Government believes that not
        enough people understand the importance of this
        technology to make a fuss. We also know that very few
        MPs realise the universal impact of the Net on their
        constituents' future, and hence the scale of the issues
        involved.

        You can change help change that.

        HELP REPAIR THE E-COMMERCE BILL - visit
        http://www.stand.org.uk/

        We need to educate our MPs, and fast. The Government is
        determined to pass the E-Commerce bill in this
        Parliament. Stand.org.uk invites visitors to enter
        their postcode, and "adopt" their local MP. In addition
        for an attractive personalised adoption certificate,
        they can monitor their MP's activities and
        parliamentary performance. Even better, this one-step
        adoption process lets users signal their MPs that it is
        unacceptable for the Goverment to endanger our
        infrastructure in return for the unproven benefits of
        being able to 'wiretap' the population.


        Thanks for your help,

        The Volunteers at Stand, http://www.stand.org.uk/

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