1998-12-08 - Re: Building crypto archives worldwide to foil US-built Berlin Walls (fwd)

Header Data

From: Jim Choate <ravage@EINSTEIN.ssz.com>
To: cypherpunks@EINSTEIN.ssz.com (Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer)
Message Hash: 1a67fe45d114f22d533d8aaa3cb0ee09e9ca57f067bc8248c610d141ffb942e4
Message ID: <199812081658.KAA11596@einstein.ssz.com>
Reply To: N/A
UTC Datetime: 1998-12-08 18:25:07 UTC
Raw Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 02:25:07 +0800

Raw message

From: Jim Choate <ravage@EINSTEIN.ssz.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1998 02:25:07 +0800
To: cypherpunks@EINSTEIN.ssz.com (Cypherpunks Distributed Remailer)
Subject: Re: Building crypto archives worldwide to foil US-built Berlin Walls (fwd)
Message-ID: <199812081658.KAA11596@einstein.ssz.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text



Forwarded message:

> Subject: Re: Building crypto archives worldwide to foil US-built Berlin Walls (fwd)
> Date: Tue, 8 Dec 1998 16:43:58 +0100 (MET)
> From: 3umoelle@informatik.uni-hamburg.de (Ulf =?iso-8859-1?Q?M=F6ller?=)

> > Ah, so the call is for folks in Denmark to post the various pieces of
> > currently available software then, not everyone on the planet as it appears.
> 
> It is not just about Denmark. The Wassenaar arrangement has been
> signed by 33 countries, including the US, Canada, the European Union,
> Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Norway and others. Up to now, 30 of
> these states have allowed to export mass market and public domain
> crypto software without a license. Only the US, France and NZ did not
> have the "General Software Note".

Which is EXACTLY my point. People are being asked to put their butts on the
line with no infrastructure or plan for what happens when the LEA's show up.

Such poor planning is doomed to fail.

> The US has exercised extreme pressure at the Wassenaar conference (as
> one German government official writes) and has managed to get the
> General Software Note modified. Now the states that have signed the
> arrangement will have to regulate the export of strong
> cryptography. There are other places such as Brazil, Iceland, South
> Africa, India, and even Singapore which do not have any export
> restrictions. 

And look at their social, economic, and civil liberty records. Other than
Iceland not one area on  your list of places has sufficient resources of the
correct type to support this sort of effort.

Iceland is about the only place that has any hope at all.

Is there any move by any group to start some sort of archive there? Are
there any subscribers from Iceland on the CDR? If so, I'd like their view
on how realistic it would be to host a site in Iceland.

> John Gilmore writes: "I call for volunteers in each country, at each
> university or crypto-aware organization, to download crypto tools
> while they can still be exported from where they are, and then to
> offer them for export from your own site and your own country as long
> as it's legal."                                               ^^^^^^^
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Which is exactly what is needed in this situation.

Which, again, is my point. What is Gilmore going to do when they decide to
make it illegal and start hassling these folks who were kind enough to back
him? What does he OWE them for their participation in HIS movement?

> RSAREF is what he has determined he can legally export from the US. So,
> yes, he is doing what he also asks others to do.

Hm, funny. Looks like EFF owns that site. Gilmore is doing nothing himself.
He's using EFF as a shield for personal liability. Why isn't he suggesting
that others do this instead of direct and personal action? Why is he not
running the gilmore.org site directly? Why isn't he looking at starting some
sort of international organization similar to EFF, or expanding EFF to do
this sort of stuff and at the same time provide the same sort of legal
shield he currently enjoys?

> > Let me ask you this Ulf, when is YOUR site going up?
> 
> My university is already distributing SSLeay, PGP, ssh, cfs and other
> cypto tools. As long as they continue to do so, I won't make my mirror
> available on the web, but my own crypto site is going up later this
> week with another piece of strong crypto software.

Kudos.

> > What are you going to do for YOUR liberty today? Has Gilmore agreed to
> > help fund YOUR fight of the change in your courts?
> 
> Today I am going to create the distribution of the software I have
> been working on in the past months, have the server set up and, if all
> goes well, upload the file.
> 
> I have made a few thousand dollars on developing crypto software and I
> am ready to use much of that money to defend my right to distribute
> the results of my work on the web. I haven't asked John or anybody
> else to help me.

But John IS asking you, me, and others to help him.


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