1997-04-08 - Cryptography Export

Header Data

From: Secret Squirrel <nobody@squirrel.owl.de>
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Message Hash: 03393bfe3ccd0916e24542ff895727115860959aad7203c1ceb513011a4df448
Message ID: <19970408124924.5846.qmail@squirrel.owl.de>
Reply To: N/A
UTC Datetime: 1997-04-08 14:51:31 UTC
Raw Date: Tue, 8 Apr 1997 07:51:31 -0700 (PDT)

Raw message

From: Secret Squirrel <nobody@squirrel.owl.de>
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 1997 07:51:31 -0700 (PDT)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Cryptography Export
Message-ID: <19970408124924.5846.qmail@squirrel.owl.de>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


  I export cryptography source code almost every single day.
  
  Does the government have a problem with that? Fuck them in
the ass!
  I can't believe that corporations pay legal experts huge
sums of money to receive advice telling them to bend over
and spread 'em for the government's bullshit legislation.

  I am not alone. My nephew regularly exports 'code' for
Pig-Latin, as a parody of my efforts to spread the use
of crypto. He says that they can take his Pig-Latin when
they pry it from his cold, dead, baby fingers.

  Cable companies regularly export encryption code when
they send out their signal-scrambling code to foreign
recipients.
  Can you think of other examples? Can you think of 
hundreds of similar examples? Think about it.

  If the government wants to prosecute me for exporting
encryption code, then they had best be prepared to 
prosecute _all_ exporters of every single item that
involves altering data that can be re-converted on 
the other end to render the output intelligible.
  If you think that I am taking this matter lightly,
then think again, because I have a legal opinion 
from an attorney who has been shoving the governments
dick back in their own face for half a century, and
he regards my potential defence as a cake-walk.

  I not only already have the paperwork set up to 
defy any potential restraining orders that may 
arise, but I have a judge that is fully prepared
to institute the necessary proceedings to validate
my right to do what hundreds or thousands of 
individuals and corporations are doing every single
day.
  If the government thinks that they can legislate
the thickness of condoms available for export, then
they had best think again. And if they think that 
they can require exported condoms to have holes in
them, then they are certainly living in fantasy
land.

  I am a self-confessed madman, but I am a madman
standing on legal precedents that are as solid as
the Rock of Gibralter. (Think about it.)

Potential Prudential Precedent <precedent@crackhouse.gov>







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