Oh, it'll work all right. Laws like this are a backstop that can be deployed specifically when technological measures fail. Remember "DRM can always be cracked"? That's what Section 1201 is for: five years in pound-me-in-the-ass prison for trying to crack DRM. These days, people accept DRM like Dilbert in the shock collar.
In this case, it's simply a matter of crafting the law in such a way that, say, possession or use of strong encryption without government backdoors automatically makes you a terrorist, the same way that possessing lockpicking tools automatically makes you a thief in Illinois. Then, once your communications become a little too random, the authorities can raid your computer and that of everyone you're connected with, arrest you and take you to a black site, and squeeze you for information (including rubber-hose cryptanalysis). And they're bound to find something juicy because most of the people going to the trouble of illegally using unbackdoored crypto are indeed terrorists, pedophiles, and other criminals. Using the "once X is outlawed, only outlaws will use X" effect to good effect.
People crack DRM all day, every day and they have ever since it was invented. It's never stopped. It's even a fairly well-known thing for people to buy games and then use the cracked versions without DRMs because they tend to be so invasive it can result in reduced performance.
I'm sure some people have been arrested and prosecuted but that's just symbolic scapegoat tactics and a pebble trying to stop the tide.
The laws you are describing are never going to be put into effect. It's just not going to happen. I don't believe the EU is full of people stupid enough to let it happen.. and even if it did, all the member states don't just automatically adopt and enforce every law immediately without thought. There are plenty of reasonable member states that just wouldn't accept these insane laws, or have populations which wouldn't accept them.
> The laws you are describing are never going to be put into effect. It's just not going to happen. I don't believe the EU is full of people stupid enough to let it happen.. and even if it did, all the member states don't just automatically adopt and enforce every law immediately without thought. There are plenty of reasonable member states that just wouldn't accept these insane laws, or have populations which wouldn't accept them.
I think that’s wishful thinking, given the previous experience of Clipper chip and 40-bit encryption rules in the USA and the Investigatory Powers Act in the UK.
Even as a British national living in Berlin, when I submit an app to Apple I have to agree to let the US government know about any use of cryptography by the app (by my reading including HTTPS, which is hope is merely legal caution rather than actual obligation).
In this case, it's simply a matter of crafting the law in such a way that, say, possession or use of strong encryption without government backdoors automatically makes you a terrorist, the same way that possessing lockpicking tools automatically makes you a thief in Illinois. Then, once your communications become a little too random, the authorities can raid your computer and that of everyone you're connected with, arrest you and take you to a black site, and squeeze you for information (including rubber-hose cryptanalysis). And they're bound to find something juicy because most of the people going to the trouble of illegally using unbackdoored crypto are indeed terrorists, pedophiles, and other criminals. Using the "once X is outlawed, only outlaws will use X" effect to good effect.