5 September 1998
Thanks to JC
Ziff-Davis News Network Tauzin: FBI won't get crypto key and more on high-tech and Capitol Hill By Michael Fitzgerald, ZDNN September 3, 1998 5:55 PM PT Updated at 6:58 PM PT SAN FRANCISCO -- An influential Congressman says Congress is close to resolving the bitter dispute over encryption software, and it looks as though it will be decided in favor of the high-tech industry. U.S. Rep. Bill Tauzin, R-La., said flatly that "we're not going to give the FBI the keys to the encryption system." The remark came as part of a wide-ranging interview with ZDNN. Encryption software is used to scramble data sent electronically. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement agencies have demanded that current crypto software not be exported without key escrow capabilities, which give it the code to unlock encrypted files. The high-tech industry has argued that this policy has ceded most of the world market to foreign software makers. While Tauzin was emphatic that the FBI would not get keys, he noted that "at the same time, we have to give the FBI enough capacity to do their job, protect us from people that want to bomb us, terrorize us and create mayhem in this country." He said the issues had not been reconciled, but he was clearly optimistic that Congress would pass a crypto bill this session. "We're close to resolving it, but it's going to take a little more work," he said. Tauzin chairs the House Commerce Committee's sub-committee on telecommunications, trade and consumer protection. This puts him in the middle of the debate on telecom deregulation and, by extension, on a number of other high-tech issues. Several key high-tech issues He expects Congress will move forward on several high-tech issues that did not make it past the committee stage in the last session of Congress. Besides encryption, he cited privacy and Internet taxation as core high-tech issues on Capitol Hill. "All those issues are critical not only to the industry that is developing e-commerce, it's also critical to consumers, and we're going to have to settle some of those," he said. He's also confident that Congress will decide to pass a law putting a three-year moratorium on Internet taxation. "The Internet ... is exploding right now. We've got to have some realistic understating about who can tax a transaction on the internet. And our bill to declare a moratorium and to give some time to settle the issue is a very good one," he said. The issue of privacy is a little dicier. "In a world where our medical records are being transmitted ... where our financial records are more accessible, how will we be assured in that world that we're not going to be abused?" High-tech industry needs to self-regulate Tauzin thinks the high-tech industry can effectively handle the privacy issues the Internet has raised, but said it has to move more rapidly, or Congress will be forced to take action. "I don't want to have the government do it, and the sooner the industry does its own job, and does it ... to the satisfaction of consumers, the less pressure there is for government to come in and try to regulate," Tauzin said. "I can assure you if we have to do it, we're going to gum it up real good. I much prefer the industry do it right." At the same time, Tauzin said Congress will probably need to take several cracks at the legislation before it gets it right. "My guess is we'll be involved in these issues for several years to come, until we've got them really tied down well," Tauzin said. "As fast as technology moves, we're going to find out we were pretty stupid in some area or another." "Technology always makes a fool of us," he said. He encouraged the high-tech industry to reach out and educate Congress people about technology. "Instead of cursing the darkness, light a few candles," Tauzin said. "The fact is, when you enter Congress you find out you're supposed to be an expert on every subject in the world, and you're not. If there aren't people who know a lot more than you who are willing to help you through it and teach you, then you're in a fog." Other topics On the year 2000: "My advice to people is to underpay their taxes. I'm real concerned about (the IRS's) capacity to send refund checks." On whether the Telecom Act of '96 has failed and needs to be changed: "It can work and it will work. We made one bad mistake in 1996 ... we left the 1930s agency (FCC) in charge of deregulation. So we have to take this 1930s FCC and we've got to redo it. I want to give them a mission to work themselves out of a job." On the Internet infrastructure and regulation: "We're at a very interesting point right now in the history of communications. The unregulated side of communications -- computers, software and all the marvelous technologies that are Internet-related -- are all now merging rapidly with the regulated structures - telephones and televisions and cable systems and what have you. Either the FCC is going to . . . extend into this unregulated world all the old regulations and subsidy requirements -- all the old cholesterol that's clogging up the system. Or it will be wise enough to let the new unregulated services show the way. My guess is they're going to choose the former." On technology and the gap between the haves and have-nots: "Computer technology is a bridge, the likes of which we've never yet been able to build. Long-distance learning . . . is a way to bridge that insitutionally handicap that's been a generational problem for my state. If you see that potential . . . to put the best teacdher in the state in front of every child for some period of the day . . . how can you not see it as the way to make sure that every American is a have instead of a have not." Why homes don't have to have PCs to get access to the Net: "Keep doing what we're doing, converge computers and televisions. They all have televisions, and sooner or later someobdy's going to give 'em a little simple device like a Nintendo that they can work with the television and do their homework."