It Came from Planet Clipper: The Battle Over Cryptographic Key "Escrow"

Tags: 1990s Clipper Chip

Authors: Froomkin, A Michael

Published: 1996

URL: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1200&context=uclf

Abstract: In 1996, the University of Chicago Legal Forum published an article about the various phases of “the U.S. government’s recent attempts to keep the cryptography genie in the bottle in the face of increasing commercial and political pressure to loosen or abolish cryptographic export control.” The article discusses the export control regime for cryptography, the changing goals of U.S. cryptography policy, a summary of the Clipper chip initiative, an overview of the proposal for software-based key escrow, an in-depth exploration of “recent technical and political changes that make the current export control policy increasingly difficult to maintain”, and concludes with a discussion of trust and Congress’ role in this policy formation. The goal of the article is to “describe the issues in a rapidly changing and complex legal and technical debate [and identify] significant legal and technical issues that current government proposals do not resolve.”