roundtable: Telecom Post #13
roundtable: Telecom Post #13
Telecom Post #13
CWHITCOM@bentley.edu
Mon, 04 Sep 1995 12:59:40 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Mon, 04 Sep 1995 12:59:40 -0400 (EDT)
From: CWHITCOM@bentley.edu
Subject: Telecom Post #13
To: tpr-ne@mitvma.mit.edu, tpr-annc@mitvma.mit.edu, roundtable@cni.org,
Message-Id: <01HUVNNUL3KI8WWFBN@bentley.edu>
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Free Speech Media, LLC
September 4, 1995
Number 13
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Compiled, written, and edited by Coralee Whitcomb
Please direct comments and inquiries to cwhitcom@bentley.edu
====================================================
The Telecom Post is posted to several distribution lists and is also
available from the CPSR listserv. To subscribe, send to LISTSERV@CPSR.ORG
with the message SUBSCRIBE TELECOM-POST YOUR NAME.
The Telecom Post will be published weekly while the U.S. Congress works on
a comprehensive overhaul of the U.S information delivery systems.
======================================================
TOPICS
Reconciling S 652 and HR 1555 - Where we go from here
The Odds of a Presidential Veto
Key Escrow - the Latest Version
S 974 - A Bill to Watch
Digital Telephony - Running into Snags
Commerce Department in Jeopardy
Survey on "Have Nots"
Reconciling S 652 and HR 1555 - Where we go from here
The next step for telecommunication reform is the conference
committee, expected to convene late next month. This committee
will be made up of representatives from both houses and it will
be their charge to resolve the many differences between S652 and
HR 1555. The final version must not only satisfy the conferees
and the Congress - it must earn a presidential signature.
Upon passage in the House, a rule orchestrates the next series
of actions. This rule would send the Senate bill to the House
for insertion of HR 1555 into S652 and conferees would be
selected. As a result of this rule, the final bill would earn
either an HR or S number which in turn determines which chamber
would be first to receive the final bill for override upon a
presidential veto.
Ordinarily this process would have begun immediately after
passage of HR 1555 and the conference committee would have been
chosen by now. However, Speaker Gingrich has delayed in
executing the rule and therefore selecting the conferees. This
has the unfortunate side effect of preventing those of us who
might like to register our opinions from focusing our efforts on
the key players. It also buys time to determine which chamber
is more likely to override a veto.
Once the conference committee is established (members having
been chosen by the House and Senate leadership), both bills are
compared and compromises struck. Only if a provision is
identical in both bills, must it be kept. Wherever there are
differences, conferees enjoy the freedom of adding completely
new language. Should the spirit of differing provisions be
kept, entirely new ways of handling those provisions might be
developed.
The Odds of a Presidential Veto
Prior to the passage of HR 1555, President Clinton threatened to
veto the legislation. With the Senate bill, S652 having passed
81-18 and HR 1555 having passed 305-117, that threat would seem
fairly insignificant as both vote totals would override a veto.
However, votes on key amendments did not enjoy similar gaps and
these votes are pointed to as indicators of ability to sustain a
veto.
Though some provisions supported by the president were won at
the eleventh hour, there remain enough troublesome areas to
suffice a veto. The president still has a problem with the
repeal of cross ownership bans and the resulting media
concentration that would result. Voters have certainly seen
proof of that prediction during the recess. Deregulation of the
cable TV industry will raise rates. Telephone and cable company
buyouts are likely to happen much closer to home than
immediately apparent by the legislation's language, and the
preemption of states from control over rate regulation schemes
is likely to ruffle feathers at a local level. A veto, with an
election on the horizon, is not, perhaps, the worst move the
President could make in the eyes of the voting consumer.
Key Escrow - the latest version
The government's plan for developing an encryption mechanism
that would allow law enforcement to unlock encrypted
communications in order to protect its traditional eavesdropping
capabilities, has been roundly denounced by the private world from
the day it was announced. One of the most unpopular
aspects of the plan, known as the Clipper Chip, was the
requirement that encryption keys be kept in escrow at the
Treasury Department and National Institute of Standards and
Technology. Not only did US industry and the Internet community
not relish the idea of government oversight, the exportability
of such a technology would be nil. As the industry increasingly
calls for the ability to export encryption software, US
manufacturers are shut out from exportation of software using a
key of over 40 bits, thereby forcing it to serve as a bystander
in the world encryption market.
The second problem with the original Clipper proposal was its
development, outside public view, by the National Security
Agency, and the algorithms were, therefore, classified. Until
now, most popular encryption mechanisms have been published for
public scrutiny and available for commercial use. Though the
use of the Clipper Chip was proposed to be voluntary, the public
feared it would become a de facto standard due to its use in
government contracting.
The pressure appears to have paid off. The Administration's
approach this time around is to include industry in every phase
of its encryption policy development. With the objective of
resolving this issue by year end, the Administration is meeting
with industry representatives to develop criteria needed for
more extensive encryption and criteria for industry serving as
the key escrow agents. The Clipper Chip algorithm is a hardware
-based standard and the only standard approved. The need to
develop both hardware and software based standards will be
considered and generally more flexibility built in.
Hewlett-Packard, Trusted Information Systems, Bankers Trust,
Novell, and National Semiconductor have begun developing key
escrow systems. One such system would fragment the key into
multiple parts and distribute the fragments to various agents.
In order to reconstruct the full key, agents would send their
fragments to a master key escrow center where proper use is
verified. This center would then decode the message but not
hand over the key itself to law enforcement agencies.
The Administration claims that the key escrow system will remain
voluntary. However, the Electronic Privacy Information Center
(EPIC) point out that key escrow systems can only be effective
if mandatory. Documents obtained from the FBI state that the
FBI, NSA, and Department of Justice all agree that national
policy enforced through legislation is needed to mandate the use
of key escrow. That leaves a fairly large gap between the
Administration's stated objectives and the beliefs of federal
law enforcement. There is some question as to whether the
looming election is playing a role at the moment.
S 974 - a bill to watch
Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) has introduced the
Anti-Electronic Racketeering Act of 1995. This bill makes it
unlawful to distribute information through the Internet in a way
that violates export control policies, therefore, downloading
encrypted software in a foreign country, under current law,
would be illegal. The objective of the bill is to put a
constraint on international criminal conduct through the
Internet. According to David Sobel of the Electronic Privacy
Information Center, this legislation would have the unfortunate
downside of making illegal encrypted software not decipherable
by the Justice Department - again raising the question about the
"voluntary" aspect of the proposed key escrow systems.
Digital Telephony - Running into snags
Last year the "Digital Telephony" bill became law. This bill
would force telephone companies to build in the capability to
deliver, in real time, telephone communications to law
enforcement agencies. $500 million was to be provided by the
government to make the necessary changes to the telephone
infrastructure. This bill was strongly opposed by the public
interest community and the telephone companies (at least until
the reimbursement was provided).
The money was to come from a 40% surcharge on civil and criminal
monetary fines. The approval for that aspect of this plan,
however, resides in the HR 1710, the Comprehensive Antiterrorism
Act of 1995. This provision was inserted into the bill at the
last minute by Judiciary Committee chairman Henry Hyde (R-IL).
This, among other reasons, has held up the progress of the bill
to the House floor. Without its passage, the wiretapping
capabilities will not be developed. The Senate has authorized
the financing of this technology through S. 735 - its
anti-terrorism counterpart.
Commerce Department in jeopardy
Multiple bills are appearing in the Senate to do away with the
Commerce Department. Before the recess, S. 929, sponsored by
Sen. Abraham (R-MI) and Dole (R-KS), would dismantle Commerce
placing most of its functions under the domain of existing
agencies. Functions controlled by the Under Secretary of
Commerce for Export Administration would be put into the hands
of the Defense Department. The US Trade Representative would
retain only a consultative role in licensing decisions under the
Export Administration Act of 1979.
A second bill, sponsored by Sen. William Roth (R-DE), would
attempt to consolidate all trade functions into one entity,
therefore not including the DOD as a player. It would eliminate
7 Commerce agencies including the National Telecommunications &
Information Administration (NTIA) and National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST). It would create a US Trade
Administration, and free the National Oceanic & Atmospheric
Administration and the Patents, Trademarks & Standards Offices
to be separate agencies. It would ultimately attempt to
drastically reduce the current number of Cabinet level
departments, agencies, and subagencies.
Survey on "Have Nots"
The US Department of Commerce has recently released a study
comparing computer penetration and usage across income,
community, and age groups. The study, "Falling through the Net"
consists of many charts looking at this issue from every angle.
Because many of us are called upon to quote this type of
statistic, here are the main ones.
Telephone penetration
Central cities 79.8%
Rural 81.6%
Urban 81.7%
Percent of US Households with a Computer/Modem
Rural Urban Central City
< $10,000 4.5/23.6 8.1/44.1 7.6/43.9
$10,000-$14,999 7.0/28.9 9.1/40.6 9.3/44.8
$15,000-$19,999 11.0/32.4 12.6/30.7 13.0/28.3
$20,000-$24,999 15.7/28.5 15.9/38.2 16.3/36.8
$25,000-$34,999 18.1/32.6 22.0/41.1 21.1/43.3
$35,000-$49,999 32.7/34.4 34.9/45.6 34.7/48.0
$50,000-$74,999 46.0/46.7 48.4/49.8 47.4/49.2
$75,000 and more 59.6/52.2 64.4/58.1 63.1/56.4
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