From: Sean Roach <roach_s@alph.swosu.edu>
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 17:00:51 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: More on Cellular Encryption Docs
Message-ID: <199702060100.RAA08114@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 12:39 AM 2/5/97 -0800, Bill Stewart wrote:
>>>>Here's more on the controlled documents for cellular encryption
>>>>from TIA/EIA we described in a 26 January post to cpunks:
>...
>>>Of course, ITAR as recently modified says it's ok to send this
>>>stuff overseas to foreigners, as long as it's on paper.
>>>There may be separate restrictions on sending it, or on copying,
>>>but they're based on copyright or contractual non-disclosure.
>>
>>Given that high-density inkjet printers can do 600x600 dpi resolution, it 
>>should be possible to achieve the equivalent of 100x100 bpi of 
>>easily-recoverable data on ordinary paper.  That's about 800 kilobits, or 
>>100 kilobytes.   What does ITAR say about this?
>
>These are text, perhaps with occasional illustrations, so the current
>interim export rules say it's ok.
>
>For optically-scannable printed data, the government's announcement says 
>it reserves (somehow) its right (acquired in unspecified manner :-)
>to re-evaluate the exportability at a later time.  I think they
>haven't settled on whether they'd be more embarassed by banning it
>(which bans export of printed material, risking serious Constitutional
>challenges) or by not banning it (having people laugh at them while
>exporting source code or even binaries in OCR-A on loose-leaf paper
>with page numbers and checksums.) 
...
Let's not tempt them with something that the common person on the street
would consider computer media, I.E. punched cards and dataglyphs.  Remember
the old fonts that used to be everywhere?  The ones with the thickened
letters at key places?  Look at a check some time, that is the type of font
at the bottom, its designed to be readable by both man and machine.  Print
out the source code in one of those fonts and mail that.  This is not as
data intensive as the other way, but at least it can be argued that it can
be read by an unaided person.
That way, on the other end, the text can be scanned in directly, using a
modified form of check clearing software, and converted into electronic
media, sans errors.