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[News] French Proposal on Crypto Irks Business



Neues von GILC:

Wie Jospin schon in Hourtin gesagt hat, wollen die 
Franzosen nur leichte Krypto zulassen und die auch 
nur mit TTP. Das wurde schon 1996 im neuen 
Telekommunikationsgesetz festgelegt. Eine Änderung 
dieser Politik steht wohl nicht an. Der ganze Wind 
entsteht nur, weil die Durchführungsverordnung, auf 
die die Industrie seit einem Jahr wartet, jetzt angekündigt 
wurde.
Die Hoffnung vieler Cyber-Franzosen liegen auf der 
Kommission, deren Politik mit der Frankreichs nur 
schwer zu vereinbaren scheint.
Wer je das französische Kryptoverbotsgesetz genauer 
betrachtet hat, wird sicher der Schwierigkeiten 
bewusst, die Paris noch bevorstehen. Nicht umsonst 
ist das Kryptoverbotsgesetz bis heute nicht angewendet, 
Verstösse nicht verfolgt worden. Die Regierung trägt 
das Gesetz nur noch als "Feigenblatt" vor sich her.
Eine Lösung bedeutet die franzöische Position sicherlich 
nicht.

Rigo

--------------forwarded
>
>   By Jennifer L. Schenker
>   Special to The Wall Street Journal
>  A proposed French law ensuring government access to corporate electronic
>communications is setting off alarm bells in the business community and on
>the European Commission.
>  France, presenting the law as a liberalization of its current policy, is
>the only Western country that bans any domestic use of
>cryptography-technology that encodes data for protection against prying
>eyes. France also places strict controls on the export of encryption tools,
>a restriction imposed by certain other countries, including the U.S.
>  The new rules, submitted to the European Commission on Thursday, allow
>businesses operating in France to encode their corporate secrets but
>require that keys to unlock the code be given to a French
>government-approved entity in which the majority of the capital or votes is
>retained by French nationals.
>  Microsoft Corp., Netscape Communications Corp. and the Business Software
>Association have raised objections to the French proposal. The BSA
>represents major international software publishers and high-tech companies,
>including Novell Inc., Compaq Computer Corp., Apple Computer Inc. and
>Lotus, a unit of International Business Machines Corp. The proposal also
>requires companies selling products with embedded encryption software in
>France to reveal "source code" -- the rough equivalent of asking Coke to
>reveal its secret formula. Some believe that such a key-recovery system
>would make it easier for competitors to gain access to a company's secrets.
>  The BSA's European chapter is expected to release a public statement this
>week supporting the European Commission's decision earlier this month to
>reject the key-recovery approach to encryption, which is championed by both
>the U.S. and France.
>  The commission, which will formally comment on the French proposal by
>month's end, is concerned partly because the French ownership requirements
>may violate internal market rules.
>  "I do not say this is the best system. It is the least bad in trying to
>find a balance between national-security interests, economic interests and
>the protection of personal privacy," said Gen. Jean-Louis Desvegnes, chief
>of France's Central Service for the Security of Information Systems, a
>civilian agency that reports directly to the French prime minister's
>office. He indicated that France might be flexible on the ownership
>requirements.
>
>-------
>David Banisar (Banisar@epic.org)                *    202-544-9240 (tel)
>Electronic Privacy Information Center           *    202-547-5482 (fax)
>666 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, Suite 301             *    HTTP://www.epic.org
>Washington, DC 20003 * PGP Key  http://www.epic.org/staff/banisar/key.html
>
>
>
>