From: rah@shipwright.com (Robert Hettinga)
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 14:38:14 +0800
To: Jeff Weinstein <jsw@netscape.com>
Subject: Re: Crippled Notes export encryption
Message-ID: <v02120d17ad2caa7efe0f@[199.0.65.105]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


>  The problem is that the government refuses to publish the rules.
>They make people ask for approval for every piece of code that is
>exported.  This gives them lots of wiggle room so that they can keep
>changing the rules in the face of technical, legal, or political
>innovation.

In the legal trade, this is what's called an unpromulgated (secret) law.
It's a no-no in the philosophy of law, but a nation state can do whatever
it wants and still call it "legal". At least our esteemed congress doesn't
do retroactive legislation, like the 1KY reich did. Well, we only do tax
hikes that way, anyway.

We had a revolution to stop crap like in 1776, but we resurrected
unpromulgated laws with the advent of the ICC at the end of the last
century, and the IRS at the beginning of this one. It's encouraging to note
that the ICC has finally been "sunset". Too bad we can't do the same for
the IRS, and maybe even State Department. Maybe in some future world of
instant full-sensorium telepresence, encrypted, of course... ;-).

Cheers,
Bob Hettinga


-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com)
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