Crypto policy and online public forums.

摘要

Traditional analysis regarding encryption export control center on two sets of conflict interest: national security against personal freedom and market. At one side, the government considers encryption a "weapon" of sort that might harm national security should it fall into the hands of terrorists and the like. On the other side, corporate America laments about lost market opportunities abroad for they could not compete with foreign companies on equal footing, and crypto-libertarians do not like being controlled, period. Both sides are significant American interests, and the issue is about finding the most appropriate balancing point.;This thesis suggests taking outside interest under consideration. That is, when making policy decisions about encryption export control, the United States should take into account what a certain policy might impact people in other countries. By doing so, America would do itself and its own people a favor. It is because encryption technology could help bring the full set of advantages the Internet has to offer to the people in the third world. It is based on the observation that cyberspace is not just a giant shopping mall, but also a rich and indomitable public forum. The more people under oppressive regimes could leverage the Internet to change their society, the safer American and the rest of the free world is. Those authoritarian regimes would not sit and watch their power drifting away; they have been trying to stop the trend. They might succeed if we let them, by taking away means of secure communications from those people. American people should not, if only for their own good.