From: Phil Karn <karn@qualcomm.com>
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 94 22:19:37 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: WSJ editorial email or fax address?
Message-ID: <199404290519.WAA13283@servo.qualcomm.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Anybody know if the WSJ accepts letters to the editor by fax or email?
I've drafted the following letter to the editor, but I couldn't find
anything but a snail mail address in today's paper.

I *did* send a copy to Mr. Bulkeley's MCI mail address, so please do
NOT forward it to him again...Phil

					7431 Teasdale Ave
					San Diego, CA 92122
					karn@unix.ka9q.ampr.org
					April 28, 1994

Editor
Wall Street Journal
Re: "Cipher Probe: Popularity Overseas of Encryption Code
    Has the US Worried", WSJ 4/28/94, Page 1.

Sirs:

The Zimmermann case is as much about the First Amendment as it is about
privacy and irrational US export controls on encryption.

Recently I obtained a formal ruling from the US State Department that a
new textbook, "Applied Cryptography" by Bruce Schneier, could be freely
exported anywhere in the world -- even though it prints actual source
code from Pretty Good Privacy (PGP).

The State Department applied a "public domain" exemption to my request.
Indeed, the First Amendment demands such an exemption. Dozens of other
books and journals on cryptography, many with similar source code
listings, enjoy the same protection.

However, the State Department has so far refused to approve my request
to export a floppy disk containing the same exact source code that
appears in Schneier's book. And they still insist that "publishing"
cryptographic software on the Internet is illegal.

Why the distinction? Do they seriously believe that only Americans can
program a computer, much less type? No, not even the government is THAT
stupid. They're using fear and intimidation in a desperate attempt to
delay the inevitable, no matter what the consequences.

	
					Philip R. Karn