Sink the Clipper!

\small Modular exponentiation and the computational complexity of factoring large numbers

© 1994 Stephen Savitzky CC-by-nc-sa

Lyrics [pdf] [txt] [cho]

	A	D	A
Now	some folks think all your secrets should	be exposed to	view,

	D	A	E7	Esus4	E7
Like	what you read, and	what you think, and	who's in bed	with	who.

	D	A	Asus4	A	Asus2	A
	Now they've built a chip called	Clipper to	help	them	tap your	phone,

	D	A	E7	Esus4	E7
And	read the private	e-mail, that's	meant for you	alone	.

	D	A
They	say they're after terrorists and	child pornography;

	E7	A	E7
They	say they'll get a search warrant bef	ore they steal your	key.

	DA	D	G	D
They	say it's volunt	ary; and if	you believe that	tale

	G	D	G	A	D
I	hope you brought your	checkbook 'cause I	have a	bridge for	sale

DA D G D A D G D A D

Sink the Clip per! Keeping secr ets keeps us free. They can have my private key

G D A DA D

When they pry it from my cold dead fingers' grip. Sink the Clip per!

G D A D G D A D G D A D

You can tell the NS A, the FB I and the CI A Just where the hell to shove that Clipper chip...

But with simple mathematics you can make a pair of keys;

Each unlocks the others' messages; it's easy as can be.

Just keep one tightly guarded, spread the other far and wide,

And not even nosy bureaucrats can read what you can hide.

If I want to send a message that is only meant for you,

I encrypt it with your public key and send the message through.

Your private key unlocks it, then you use my public key

To prove my private signature has damned well come from me.

Now, the next verse would have had the algorithm in it, but if I did that I'd get into trouble, and besides it's already been written, so I'll give you the links instead. If you're in the US you can FTP Phil Zimmermann's Pretty Good Privacy from soda.berkeley.edu or buy a commercial version from Viacrypt. Don't ship it over the border, though, or they'll bust your ass for exporting munitions without a license. That's gun running, folks. I'm not making this up.

So if you're outside the US, you can get it from ftp.demon.co.uk. If you're in the US, though, don't touch it, or Public Key Partners will sue your ass for infringing their patent on the RSA algorithm, in spite of the fact that algorithms aren't supposed to be patentable.

Get all that? Hope you encrypted it; there'll be a raid right after this set.

So put no faith in governments, for that's how freedom ends;

Trust proven mathematics, large numbers and your friends.

And tell no living soul the words that guard your private key;

Kick the cops off your computer using strong crypytography.

'Cause you wouldn't give the local cops the key to your front door;

Your thoughts are much more personal, so guard them all the more.

If they ask you for your private key then tell them where to go,

And if they offer you a Clipper chip then Just--Say--No!

refrain/coda

	DA	G	D	A
Get the	Clipper Chip and the	NSA, The	FBI and the	CIA

	G	D	G	D	A
Packed	off to Davey	Jones today--	Remember keeping	secrets keeps us	free;

	G	A	D
And we'll--	sink--the	Clipper--in the	sea.

The ``cold dead fingers'' quote is from John Perry Barlow of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.