[flomo]

Or in 1996, it was easier to put up a page on your website which panders to some hypothetical internet libertarian demographic that might vote for you.

Ultimately this is just typical American presidential political theater. By election day 1996, Dole and Clinton were in almost total agreement on internet issues. Telecommunications Act, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, etcetera.

[Natsu]

In 1996, good luck finding many people who thought copyright was going overboard or talking about balance (heck, that's still a bit rare...). The DMCA would become law in just a couple years, it was a real pain to get a browser that wasn't hobbled with export ciphers, and Bill was actively pushing the Clipper chip.

About the only good thing that year was that Bill did ease encryption export restrictions by reclassifying it so it was no longer a "munition" but there were still controls, just via a different list.