From: aba@atlas.ex.ac.uk
Date: Thu, 28 Mar 1996 07:12:17 +0800
To: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Subject: Re: So, what crypto legislation (if any) is necessary?
Message-ID: <21485.9603262306@sirius.dcs.exeter.ac.uk>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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At 4:11 PM 3/26/96, Adam Shostack wrote:
>Timothy C. May wrote:
> >        I'm forced to disagree on this point.  I think that the
> >comparable product has the potential to be a very big deal; it means
> >that any product using IDEA or 3DES may become exportable, because
> >such products are available outside the US.
> 
> I certainly don't disagree that if Leahy is passed, which is unlikely, then
> conventional ciphers like 3DES will become exportable. (And I am forced to
> add, "Big deal.")
>
> What I'm more interested in are not the ciphers which had their genesis in
> the crypto work of the 70s, but in the new and exciting applications to
> come. Things such as this list often discusses. I believe Leahy could stall
> export of these new items until eventually there are offshore equivalents
> of sufficiently wide deployment that the Leahy clause would get invoked.

On the ITAR issue, and whether this is a big deal for someone living
in the US, it seems to me that the major annoyance of ITAR is that it
slows down development, and commercial uptake of crypto because the
internet is a worldwide market place.

ie I would have thought that getting rid of ITAR would be beneficial
to internet commerce in general, and likely advance uptake of
electronic cash (by several years?)  For whatever reasons (best known
to themselves) even big fish like netscape, and microsoft don't seem
to have any stomach for taking on the USG in any meaningful way over
the issue.

I'd view widely deployed electronic cash to be a step in the right
direction opening the way for more interesting crypto applications.

What's your analysis on this?  Do you think I am over-rating the
negative effects of ITAR on furtherment of electronic cash?  What say
about electronic cash as a catalyst for uptake of other crypto
applications?

(my use of "electronic cash" above refers to payee and payer
anonymous, not electronic cheques or credit card transactions over the
internet)

Adam