From: Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 19:27:37 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: PGP
Message-ID: <199602201046.CAA13739@ix16.ix.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 10:30 PM 2/15/96 EST, Derek Atkins <warlord@ATHENA.MIT.EDU> wrote:
>>       Could you settle a dispute?  Is it, or Is it not, legal to take 
>> PGP source code and the like out of the country if it is written on 
>> paper?
>
>This is a leading question.  If you just print it out, it might not be
>legal to export.  If it is printed in a book (e.g., the PGP Sourcecode
>Book, MIT Press, 1995) then it should be legal to take it out of the
>country.  IANAL, YMMV.

A more precise answer is "If you print it out, and ask them for permission,
they may or may not grant it.  If you print it out, don't ask for permission,
and let them know you're exporting it, they may or may not decide to
prosecute you, and you may or may not have the resources to win if they do."

Dan Bernstein's reading of the law is that you can't even teach cryptomathics
to foreigners in the US, and his court case on the matter is beginning.
Other people read the law to say that public domain material is not
"technical documentation" on defense items, and thus exempt.
Putting a copy of the MIT book in some public libraries would be nice...

#--
#				Thanks;  Bill
# Bill Stewart, stewarts@ix.netcom.com / billstewart@attmail.com +1-415-442-2215
# http://www.idiom.com/~wcs     Pager +1-408-787-1281

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