I promised no more clipper unless important. this is from the The mini-Journal of Irreproducible Res

[David Farber <>]

1994-03-04      Clipper Chip Envelope, Initiative, and Economics


CLIPPER CHIP ENVELOPE
Soon the government-mandated Clipper Chip secret-code-decoder will be
installed in every piece of US electronic communications equipment.
Criminals might then try to send their coded messages via traditional
mail. Against that possibility, we are now applying Clipper Chip
protection to paper mail. Our Clipper Chip Envelope automatically reads
and decodes any paper enclosed in it. The Clipper Chip Envelope consists
of a standard paper envelope with an installed optical scanner and
microprocessor, optical character recognition software, a passive
transmitter, and a Clipper Chip. The whole mechanism is the size and
value of a fingernail clipping. Ee-way are-ay aking-may is-thay
echnology-tay available-ay oo-tay any-ay official-ay agency-ay ich-way
an-cay ecode-day is-they essage-may, free of charge.


CLIPPER CHIP INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE INITIATIVE
The Society for Basic Irreproducible Research (SBIR) strongly supports
the basic Clipper Chip requirement. Oxymoronically, it will cause US
encryption research to quickly lag behind that of other countries. We
see this as a boost to the international science community, which has
suffered so long from the domination of US researchers in too many
fields.


CLIPPER CHIP ECONOMICS
An historical note: It was we who performed the economic analysis for
the government's Clipper Chip decision. Decoding requires too much
mathematical effort and talent, a considerable expense even during the
current mathematicians glut. With declining math skills in the US, the
cost of encryption research can be expected to rise further. In the long
run, it will be much cheaper to bribe appropriate officials in the
countries that do continue to perform research.




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