From: Steve Reid <steve@edmweb.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 17:39:02 +0800
To: Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Legality of Crypto in Canada?
In-Reply-To: <199604181959.MAA02651@toad.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.91.960418225122.2533A-100000@kirk.edmweb.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


> >Patents would not have prevented the Russians from using RSA, nor any other 
> >foreigners, so as far as I can see the only group of people impaired by the 
> >RSA patent were American citizens as a group.  

> (Other than Canadians..)  The reason that RSA isn't patentable in other
> countries isn't because the US is the only place that permits
> algorithm patents (many countries do, and even provide more than US;

"Other than Canadians"? Exactly what is the legal status of RSA and 
other crypto algorithms in Canada?

My understanding of ITAR is, crypto software can be exported from the USA
into Canada, but even in Canada, it remains under US ITAR laws. But what
about the patent laws? Do RSA and/or IDEA have patent strings attached up
here? 

Bottom line: Are there any potential problems with me using the 
international version of PGP (2.6.3i) up here in Canada? What about 
distributing it?

Most of the legal info I see on the net about crypto in Canada only
mentions Canada in the context of "US/Canada". :-/


=====================================================================
| Steve Reid - SysAdmin & Pres, EDM Web (http://www.edmweb.com/)    |
| Email: steve@edmweb.com   Home Page: http://www.edmweb.com/steve/ |
| PGP Fingerprint: 11 C8 9D 1C D6 72 87 E6  8C 09 EC 52 44 3F 88 30 |
|              -- Disclaimer: JMHO, YMMV, IANAL. --                 |
===================================================================:)