From: "Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net>
Date: Wed, 2 Oct 1996 14:39:38 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: How might new GAK be enforced?
In-Reply-To: <199610020332.UAA16663@mail.pacifier.com>
Message-ID: <v03007801ae77a4d9088d@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 8:32 PM -0800 10/1/96, jim bell wrote:
>At 09:39 AM 10/1/96 -0800, Timothy C. May wrote:

>>(Else what's to stop Giant Corporation from using Non-GAKked software
>>within the U.S., which is perfectly legal (under the "voluntary" system),
>>but then "happening" to have their foreign branches and customers obtain
>>"bootleg" versions at their end? All it takes is a single copy to get out,
>>and be duplicated a zillion times. Voila, interoperability, with the only
>>"crime" being the first export...which is essentially impossible to stop,
>>for so many reasons we mention so often. Conclusion: Government must make
>>this very mode illegal, perhaps by making it a conspiracy to thwart the
>>export laws....)
>
>If this solution were really practical, it would have been tried already.

And just what would you call PGP?

Long before the MIT deal, people in the U.S. were using their "OK in
America" (not counting RSADSI's issues) software to communicate with
"illegally exported" copies in foreign lands.

This model--leaking a U.S. version and then communicating freely between
U.S. sites and the "leakee" sites--worked for PGP. I believe the USG fears
this will happen again.

Hence my speculation that they may try to illegalize the mere communication
with an offending product.

--Tim May


We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."