From: "Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law" <froomkin@law.miami.edu>
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 1996 13:46:52 -0700 (PDT)
To: rollo@artvark.com
Subject: Re: Why not PGP?
In-Reply-To: <v03007804ae82d4baa7bb@[206.183.203.4]>
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.95.961010164556.6649L-100000@viper.law.miami.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Thu, 10 Oct 1996 rollo@artvark.com wrote:

> Two questions:
> 
> 1. Does anyone think that legislation might be passed which would
> criminalize my communications with Ray?

Yes.  But I don't think the courts would uphold it in the face of a
well-presented constitutional challenge.  See

http://www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin/articles/clipper.htm

> 
> 2. Suppose someone writes a program Z that has no expicit crypto code in
> it, but has hooks for installing one or another version of PGP. Given a
> copy of Z, someone in this country could install PGP he got from MIT,
> whereas someone in Europe could install the international version.
> Would export of Z violate ITAR restrictions?

Yes, but these are currently being challenged in 3 separate court actions.

The administration asserts, however, that "hooks" are every bit as
unexportable as the real thing. 

A. Michael Froomkin        | +1 (305) 284-4285; +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax)
Associate Professor of Law | 
U. Miami School of Law     | froomkin@law.miami.edu
P.O. Box 248087            | http://www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin
Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA | It's warm here.