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by throwaway84742 2976 days ago
But why? Why give the government such a ripe target for abuse? Why tilt the balance of power even further in its favor?
4 comments

Also a good question, but this post focused only on why it's a stupid idea technically on purpose.
Point taken. He briefly talks about “policy” in the beginning. Policy is the instrument through which the ruling class gradually strips away individual freedoms. We need to prominently feature freedom in these conversations, because ultimately that’s what at stake here.
Many people, especially those outside the tech community, do not view law enforcement as an adversary. In the US, the balance that we have struck is that the government cannot search our property, except upon probable cause (fourth amendment). While I personally don't like it, I think that warrant-based key escrow is reasonable from a policy perspective.
In post-FISA world where a campaign of a presidential candidate was wiretapped under false pretenses, this view of the world is criminally naive.
Because every organization strives for more power, whether its members admit it or not.

The very idea of "checks and balances" is that different organizations would strive for power on opposite directions, thus preventing each other from gaining much.

Because now there is a patent, the government can start forcing companies to implement it. And the patent owner will profit. Quite smart, actually.
Except prior art?

I mean, clearly there’s a difference between “blows up” and “destroys all the key material”, but clearly Apple can point to prior art here.