From: fc@all.net (Dr. Frederick B. Cohen)
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 95 06:08:21 PDT
To: meredith@ecid.cig.mot.com (Andrew D Meredith)
Subject: Re: Hooks to Crypto>
In-Reply-To: <9507281237.ZM15500@jurua.sweng.ecid.cig.mot.com>
Message-ID: <9507281300.AA22773@all.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text


...
> > Actually, neither hooks nor encryption are unexportable, you
> > just need a license to export them.
...

> I hope I'm not alone in wondering why on earth this is the case.

They don't want to encourage encryption if they can avoid it.  It
impairs their ability to gather intelligence.

> Ok, exporting cryptography from the USA is restricted, and highly
> controversial. I think there has been something on this one already.
>
> But what is it, in the legal wibble, that make _hooks_ to
> cryptography restricted. How have they worded things to make this the
> case.

Legal? What makes you think so? It hasn't made it to the courts yet
because people in the US aren't willing to risk jail for over their
right to do it.  The only court case I am aware of was the RSA case and
in that one, the courts ruled against the NSA - but in today's political
and economic environment, people who do cryptography don't want to risk
it.

> The hooks are of course completely useless in and of themselves. You
> can only do anything useful with them if you have the matching crypto
> package.

Not really right.  It's very easy to change a compression hook into an
encryption hook using standard off-the-shelf shareware, public domain
software, or commercial products.

> Yours a confused Brit ... who doesn't have this problem ... yet!!

Don't bet on it.  If you really try to export top-flight encryption
technology in a big way, you may find that your government can be
just as opressive as mine.

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