From: Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 1997 14:56:13 +0800
To: Stone Monkey <sm@nym.alias.net>
Subject: Re: FYI: NSA Requests Source Code From Elvis+
In-Reply-To: <19970712085043.11461.qmail@nym.alias.net>
Message-ID: <3.0.2.32.19970714215422.02fa6660@popd.ix.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



>>> The National Security Agency has asked Sun Microsystems Inc. and Elvis+,
>>> the Russian networking company in which Sun has a 10 percent stake, to
>>> turn over the source code of its SunScreen SKIP E+.
>>Why should the US government get access to the source code of foreign
>>product being imported to the US?

With PGP, they'd get the source code because users insist
that it be available so they know whether they can trust it.
With some commercial products, they'd have to pay for a source license...

At 08:50 AM 7/12/97 -0000, Stone Monkey wrote:
>To me the announcement implied that the NSA wanted to compare Sun's
>and Elvis+'s implementations, to verify that they are actually different.
>To check that Sun didn't simply smuggle the code out and launder it 
>through Elvis+.  They're not looking at imports (why would Elvis+'s
>code be imported?  It's already available domestically from Sun),
>they're looking at Sun's well-publicised end-run around the crypto chilling
>effect, to see if Sun perhaps cut any corners.

In America, the standard Constitutionally-approved method for law enforcers 
to get access to private papers is to get a court to issue a warrant 
naming the probable cause to suspect that a crime has been committed 
and the particular items to be seized.  If the FBI wants to accuse Sun
of export violations, they can do it.  Last I heard, the NSA's
job didn't include law enforcement - just building tools to protect 
government communications, and eavesdropping on foreigners,
and occasionally providing technical expertise to other government agencies.

> But it's more fun to rant about the paranoid thrashings of a government
> bogeyman than it is to attempt to understand the actions of the NSA,
> which is not staffed by stupid people.

[BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA!]  Understanding their actions doesn't mean approving.


#			Thanks;  Bill
# Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts@ix.netcom.com
# You can get PGP outside the US at ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/crypto/pgp
#   (If this is a mailing list or news, please Cc: me on replies.  Thanks.)