From: Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Jul 1996 08:57:38 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Borders *are* transparent
Message-ID: <199607212242.PAA11398@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 01:13 AM 7/20/96 +0600, Arun Mehta <amehta@giasdl01.vsnl.net.in> wrote:
>Is enought information available for someone else to write
>software that would be able to 
>communicate with Netscape's at the US-level of crypto? If so, the
>US government is simply
>forcing Netscape to open a window of opportunity for some foreign
>software company to come up with a competing product for the
>international market. A case of cutting off your nose to spite your face?

The encryption and protocols used by Netscape are their SSL protocol;
you can get the Australia-written SSLeay package to do it,
though if you want to use it in the US you need to make sure
you've taken care of RSA patent-licensing issues.
There are two ends of the problem - browser and server.

It's really hard to compete with Netscape's browser,
since they add N more features per week, though you could
make a far smaller adjunct browser to handle secure transactions
that you leave running in another window while doing Netscape.

On the other hand, competing with their server is possible,
being done, and potentially big business.  During the Pro-CODE
Senate hearings, Barksdale put up a poster of a web page in 
South Africa for a web-server called Sioux, which is some relative
of Apache and maybe Apache-SSL, and which makes a big point on
its web page about not being limited by US ITAR restrictions.

#				Thanks;  Bill
# Bill Stewart +1-415-442-2215 stewarts@ix.netcom.com
# http://www.idiom.com/~wcs
#				Confuse Authority!