From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
Date: Wed, 27 Apr 94 10:39:52 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Liberating Schneier's Code?
Message-ID: <199404271740.KAA12811@netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



In typical Cypherpunks fashion, we are beating this one to death! (How
else can we keep our message traffic high enough to keep using the
Cypherpunks list as a plaintext channel to carry messages stego'ed in
the right-hand margins?)

- some want the source code printed in OCRable form

- some just want it typed in by volunteers and then distributed

- and others are expecting the Karns case to get the export situation
resolved soon enough anyway

Need I point out that the source code already exists in
machine-readable form on the $30 disketter Schneier is selling?

All it takes is for someone to order it, then put the code on an ftp
site. Outside the U.S. And there are of course _many_ ways to get such
a diskette outside the U.S.

"This post is for disussion purposes only and is not to be construed
as an inducement to infringe the property rights of Schneier or his
publisher or to violate the ITAR, COCOM, or Sales to Pinko Nations
Laws." (had to put this in)

Yes, this solution "violates" Schneier's "property rights," but so do
the main alternatives above that folks are discussing. (And I'm not
being sarcastic here in my quotes around "violates" and "property
rights."  There are complicated issues here. Bruce Schneier himself
said he wanted to include the disk with every copy or at least have an
ftp site, so I don't think money is the main issue. And he's
presumably selling quite a few copies of the book, anyway.)

Independent of the Schneier book, I do think there needs to be a code
repository of useful code. Mark Riordan has some at his RIPEM site,
there's the RSAREF code that RSADSI makes available, and several other
code ftp sites I've seen (and which I've collected for the Cypherpunks
FAQ I'm getting closer to releasing).

--Tim May

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