CDT-led Public Interest/Industry Coaltion Letter
Supporting Pro-CODE Legislation

The Honorable Conrad Burns
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Patrick Leahy
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Patty Murray
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Ron Wyden
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Robert Dole
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Larry Pressler
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Lauch Faircloth
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Don Nickles
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

May 2, 1996

Dear Senators:

The undersigned companies, associations, and government reform and privacy
organizations are writing in support of your efforts to relax encryption
export controls and make privacy-protecting encryption technologies more
widely available to computer users.  Your leadership in sponsoring the
"Promotion of Commerce On-Line in the Digital Era (Pro-CODE) Act of
1996" is critical to eliminating the counterproductive regulation in
this area.  To build public support for this initiative, the undersigned
groups will also be sponsoring a series of public education events designed
to raise awareness of encryption's importance to U.S. competitiveness and
individual privacy. We invite you to join us in this campaign.

Current U.S. export controls and other regulations on encryption
technologies are stifling electronic commerce on the Internet, handicapping
U.S. industry in the global marketplace, and preventing computer users from
protecting their privacy online.  The high technology industry and Internet
users labor today under Cold War-era cryptography policies that threaten
U.S. jobs by compromising the competitiveness of U.S. industry.  

The ability of U.S. companies to participate in the global Internet
marketplace for computer sales, online services, and new electronic
commerce applications is undermined by export controls which prevent them
from selling secure products required by their global customer base.  These
products and services are, however, available from foreign competitors. 
Moreover, individuals will not use the Internet if their constitutional
privacy rights are not protected.  Relaxing export controls, as the
Pro-CODE does, is essential to the success of electronic commerce and to
meet the needs of individuals online. 

To support this effort, many of the undersigned groups are sponsoring an
Encryption Education Day this July in Silicon Valley.  We look forward to
your participation in the centerpiece of this education effort, a
roundtable meeting in Silicon Valley between industry leaders, members of
Congress, encryption experts, and the national press, to continue the task
of raising public awareness about this important issue. We are committed to
working with you and other members of Congress towards a new national
encryption policy. 


Sincerely,

American Bankers Association
Americans for Tax Reform
America Online, Inc.
Bellcore
Business Software Alliance
Center for Democracy and Technology
Computer & Communications Industry Association
CompuServe, Inc.
Crest Industries, Inc.
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Electronic Messaging Association
IEEE - USA
Information Technology Association of America
Institute for Justice
Iris Associates
Lotus Development Corporation
The Media Institute
Microsoft Corporation
Netscape Communications Corporation
Novell, Inc.
Oracle Corporation
Pacific Telesis
People for the American Way
Prodigy, Inc.
Securities Industry Association
Software Publishers Association
Sybase, Inc.
Telecommunications Industry Association
Voters Telecommunications Watch

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