DaedalusHKX's Journal: Last post I mentioned "encryption control"...

Now here's a tidbit of attention in the media (which always uses the "demonization before prohibition" formula before some form of ban or restriction).

This pattern has been followed for sometime now. Guns were demonized in the papers and in Hollywood (gotta love a full 30 round burst of accurate full auto fire from a small pistol, only Hollywood can deliver so accurate a shooter, but between movies and newspapers, people become so afraid of guns that a mere .22LR shot will cause an individual to drop dead from an arm shot, despite the lack of damage such a round would cause)... and voila, we got various forms of gun control.

Now, encryption is starting to get mentions in the paper, and one finally makes it to slashdot... http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/08/1618229

To quote: "Matt Phillips, spokesman for the UK record industry trade association explains, 'Our internet investigations team, internet service providers and the police are well aware of encryption technology: it's been around for a long time and is commonplace in other areas of internet crime. It should come as no surprise that if people think they can hide illegal activity they will attempt to.'"

Remember? England suffers under a total gun ban, they've even gotten started on demonizing and "buying back" knives now. (Aka buy up, or waste of taxpayer resources to *buy* and destroy taxpayer property, double waste, AFAIK).

I could almost laugh. I have met people in line at grocery stores, computer shops, hunting shops, (Bass Pro, Dicks, etc) who say "if you've nothing to hide, why worry about privacy?"

Can people TRULY be this stupid? We all have something to hide, but many of the sheeple don't realize this until someone airs THEIR dirty laundry and then they suddenly discover that, voila, privacy really IS a nice thing. Most people repress things they don't want remembered, and presume that if THEY forgot, the record of said skeletons in the closet is lost. Alas it often is not, and even the details of one's sex life or "unusual" hobbies may be used to demonize an individual or destroy life or career. Try being into model rocketry and get pulled over by a cop while carrying an exhibit... if you get Terry searched and don't have the brains to lock the car and be on the offense during the questioning, you may likely be nailed for "transporting explosives" or some such.

True, I think all a ban will do, is fully bring the contrarian nature of humanity to bear, and those of any kind of orneriness will immediately deploy encryption to their everyday computing. As with all "prohibitions", nobody is ever harmed, except perhaps the user, yet governments the world over will trip all over their dicks to "pass laws" and "make illegal" the "concealment of illegal downloading through encryption"... or somesuch.

In the end, most of us won't get touched, but the goon squads will get their way, kick in some doors and hurt/dissuade the normal everyday J6P's (Joe 6 Pack) of the world. Probably will beat some little "h4x0r" kiddie into paste for "resisting arrest" (as if some 13 year old "scr1pt k1dd13" would be able to do anything but faint at the sight of M16 muzzles in his face and screaming ninja masked thugs in his bedroom.)

Ordinary users trying stuff out will get hurt. Those with skill and without the will to play ball will continue to encrypt their traffic unharmed, though selective enforcement will continue to be used to "make examples" of political dissidents and "undesirables", though the governments of the world, generally go after soft targets. This has always been the way.