From: Lucky Green <shamrock@netcom.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 01:09:33 -0800 (PST)
To: sameer <sameer@c2.net>
Subject: Re: Export proposal
Message-ID: <3.0.32.19961230010938.006bca68@netcom13.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 10:24 PM 12/29/96 -0800, sameer wrote:
[...]
>	Stewart Baker has been quoted as saying that banned "easily
>scanned printed texts" isn't far away. (Rebecca Vesely's Wired News
>article) 

The language of the new regulations supports this view. It seems to me that
the USG wanted to ban easily scannable text, but wasn't sure how to best
define "easily scannable". This is a property that is difficult to define.
Once they come up with a workable definition, expect the regs to be amended.

>We are now just one step away from non-GAK crypto being
>illegal in the US. 

As Michael Froomkin has noted, this will require an act of Congress. I
expect the administration to send a pro-GAK bill to Congress in 1997.



-- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred
   Make your mark in the history of mathematics. Use the spare cycles of
   your PC/PPC/UNIX box to help find a new prime.
   http://www.mersenne.org/prime.htm