From: Abstruse <Abstruse@technologist.com>
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 1997 12:59:22 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: re: Just in case...
Message-ID: <33F67EE5.5760@technologist.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



ok..i don't know how many of you saw this, and..given my short time
recently, it may have even passed through this list..so, if it's a
re-post, i apologive..if not, enjoy..but i figure with all the other
side threads that come through here..this will be my fuck up if it's a
re-post, ok?! well, enough of that, onto the post!

***************************from the BoS list******************

In a development that is probably sending Louis Freeh into coniptions
and
may represent a fatal blow to the administration's efforts to control
encryption exports, the source code for Pretty Good Privacy's PGP 5.0
encryption program was posted Monday on a web site at the University of
Oslo.

 So how did it get there, what with prohibitions on the export of
128-bit
encryption encryption software? Right out the front door, that's how --
in
the form of a 6,000-page book (remember them?), a format that is not
covered by the law.

 A group of enterprising hackers set about scanning all 6,000 pages of
the
source code and then painstakingly double-checked for errors, a
two-month
process whose final fruits were unveiled in Unix format Monday, with Mac
and Windows versions forthcoming.

 PGP says it had nothing to do with the whole thing, but was happy to
have
its product vetted free by a group of experts, whose trouble-shooting
showed that the code is secure and contains no back doors for government
visitors.

More info at http://www5.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/zdnn/0812/zdnn0006.html