1996-01-10
Craig A. Johnson
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 09:48:28 EST
From: "W. Curtiss Priest" <•••@••.•••>
Subject: IRS, FBI EYE INTERNET WITH SUSPICION (from Edupage)
(Reposted from Telecom Policy Roundtable-Northeast)
IRS, FBI EYE INTERNET WITH SUSPICION
The Clinton administration's reluctance to ease up on export controls
for encryption software stems in part from pressure from U.S. law
enforcement agencies, and the owner of a New York-based software
company sees heavy lobbying behind the government's desire to regulate
content on the Internet: "I think the Internal Revenue Service and the
FBI are watching this one very carefully. They wouldn't mind seeing
the government set a precedent for deciding what can and cannot go on
the Internet." The IRS fears that easy access to cheap and
sophisticated encryption software will make income- and sales-tax
evasion too easy, and the FBI worries about criminal and terrorist
plots hatched in cyberspace, but some observers say government control
tactics are too little, too late. A Hudson Institute economist says,
"Electronic money gets really interesting when you realize how
impossible it is to put national walls around it, mandate the use of
national currencies, or require that transactions go through banks...
The country will have no practical choice but to rely more than ever
on voluntary tax compliance. That means tax rates will have to be kept
as low as possible on people and on businesses." (Investor's Business
Daily 9 Jan 96 B1)
