IP: And you thought it was Larry Flynt . . .

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

From: sbaker@steptoe.com

Dave,

I am sending you part of a note we sent to our clients a week or two ago.  I 
haven't seen it in the press yet, but after it shows up in IP, the NY Times 
will be more or less irrelevant.

Stewart


From:   Stewart Baker (sbaker@steptoe.com)
    Elizabeth Banker (ebanker@steptoe.com)
     
     
The press would have you believe that it was Larry Flynt and his 
million-dollar 
tales of infidelity that caused the unexpected change in House leadership this 
month, but encryption policy buffs -- paranoid by nature and proud of it -- 
are 
beginning to focus on another suspect, one with more to gain.  

That's because it is the Federal Bureau of Investigation that looks like the 
biggest winner now that Robert Livingston has been replaced by Dennis 
Hastert as
odds-on favorite to be Speaker of the House of Representatives.
     
Livingston supported the industry's version of SAFE, the crypto decontrol bill 
that died in Congress last session.  In contrast, J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) has 
shown strong solidarity with the FBI on encryption issues as a member of the 
House Commerce Committee.  Indeed, Hastert supported the Oxley-Manton 
Amendment 
that would have turned the SAFE Act of 1997 (H. R. 695) into a mandate for 
domestic regulation of encryption.  And when Oxley-Manton was rejected by the 
Committee in favor of the Markey-White Amendment, Hastert voted against the 
SAFE
Act.

..