Panelists:
David Jones, PhDWhile Canadians like to take pride in being near the "leading edge" of telecommunications technology, we also recognize that our American cousins are often one step ahead, on the "bleeding edge". As a consequence, we are often able to learn from American successes and failures. The Communications Decency Act, for instance, serves as a good lesson on how not to regulate the Internet.
McMaster University, Dept of Computer Science
President, Electronic Frontier Canada
Of course, this country like any other is faced with same kinds of concerns that arise from this newfangled communication medium, so much of what previous speakers have said is applicable in Canada. What I'd like to do today is to take you for a brief stroll down the Canadian information superhighway and highlight some of the similarities and differences on some now familiar topics: crypto, porn, hate, libel, and regulation.
On this diskette, I have a computer program that implements a strong encryption algorithm known as Blowfish, which supports keys up to 448 bits in length. Messages scrambled with this program cannot be unscrambled, even by the most powerful computers, without knowledge of the secret key.
Despite its tremendous value in protecting privacy of personal communications and security of electronic commerce, Canadian law enforcement and spy agencies are eager to prevent the widespread use of strong encryption.
As a signatory to the Wassenaar Arrangement on dual-use technologies, Canada treats cryptographic software much like it treats dangerous lasers and missile guidance systems. Export restrictions prevent me from selling this to customers outside the country without prior government approval. And for encryption this strong, I can tell you that approval will not be granted.
(holding up diskette) ... But is this speech?
To me, this question highlights a key difference in the Canadian and American approaches to freedom of expression. In well known American cryptography export cases, like Bernstein and Junger, ...
[ note: The remainder of the talk was accidentally deleted. It will be typed in again shortly. -- [email protected], 06oct98 ]