From: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 1998 14:47:53 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Exporting Code the Easy Way
In-Reply-To: <34CD53FD.363A9C8C@netscape.com>
Message-ID: <v03102809b0f4820cf059@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 9:44 PM -0800 1/27/98, Alan Olsen wrote:
>At 07:26 PM 1/26/98 -0800, Tom Weinstein wrote:
>
>>Don't hold your breath.  We're still bound by US export regulations, so
>>we won't be able to export crypto-relevant source code.  We'll release what
>>we can, but you probably won't be satisfied.
>>
>>Of course, there's always the option for some enterprising individuals
>>outside the US to replace the missing pieces.
>
>Or you could just publish the source code in a big book...  ]:>

Or even easier option:

Dispense with the actual scanning and OCRing and simply _say_ the code was
OCRed. Or, for that matter, don't even bother to say. U.S. Customs and the
ITARs/EARs have no provisions for asking international users if the version
they are using was compiled from source code printed in books!

(This was my recommended approach for the PGP job...use the code off the
CD-ROM, carried out in someone's luggage or mailed or sent over the Net,
and then _say_ the OCRing was done....it's not as if U.S. Customs has any
authority to question someone in Amsterdam or Denmark and demand proof that
they really spent those hundreds of hours laboriously scanning and OCRing
and proofreading....)

Why do things the hard way?

Seriously, when the code people use internationally is used, just who the
hell cares whether it was ever scanned from a book or not? That only
affects the issue of _export_, which is mooted anyway by the utter
triviality of exporting software on CD-ROMs, DATs, through the mail, via
FedEx and Airborne, through remailers, and on and on and on. Nobodu using
"PGP International Version" has to worry one whit, no pun intended, about
whether the code came from an original PGP distribution, or source code
scanned and OCRed, so long as it checks out properly.


--Tim May

The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^2,976,221   | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."