chaffing and winnowing

clemens:
> for chaffing and winnowing see
> <URL:http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~rivest/chaffing.txt>.  this is not
> really encryption, but it will legally work even in countries were
> encryption is outlawed.

I have taken this outside our other discussion since it may be
of more general interest.

I have browsed the linked text and find myself thinking that
"chaffing and winnowing" is a bogus "solution" to the problem of
governments wishing to control information content much in the same
way D. J. Bernstein argues about real and bogus "solutions" to spam,
  http://cr.yp.to/qmail/antispam.html

If chaffing and winnowing become widely used, any government that
already has laws against non-government sanctioned encryption would
easily outlaw this too, using some vague formulation:
   "For digital communication, you are not allowed to conceal content
   from the government on purpose, for example by using
   'chaffing and winnowing' techniques."
Since court systems are 'implented' by human beings, they can handle
such a vague laws. A court case will investigate the whole background
of the communication, arguing whether this specific instance of
chaffing and winnowing was a technical misstake or on purpose for
hiding something.

Hence, using this in an email protocol with the purpose of going
around govenments who have outlawed encryption seems meaningless to
me.

//Rickard