No, but that's a horrible way of communicating. I can't image a future where people have complex programs to decode pictures and re-encode them to post to innocent looking sites. Plus, how are average people going to get these programs in the first place without being busted?
I think a better method might be to create a big complex MMO that everyone plays that happens to have a news forum inside it somewhere. Then the data doesn't have to be encrypted per se, but it would be harder to see from outside and wouldn't be complex for users to participate in.
>Also, banning cryptography will mean that online banking, VPN access, ssh, remote desktop, etc., etc. will no longer be possible. So I doubt this will ever happen.
I wouldn't have to become impossible, it would simply have to be changed in such a way that the government can always see all communications.
As I say, I hope you're right, but as a programmer with a background in network engineering I don't see anything (outside of P2P) that couldn't easily be stopped.