PGP: USA-Legal PGP Project

[edgar@spectrx.Saigon.COM (Edgar W. Swank)]

Derek Zahn recently posted:

    Subject: "Cypherpunks Write Code"

    Hmm, I write code -- but so far no cyphercode.

    Since I'd like to be part of the cypherdelic revolution, what code
    needs writing?  I agree that the PC/modem scrambled telephone is a
    good idea, but others are already bashing that out; there must be
    other neat projects that want doing.  Any thoughts?

Thank you, Derek!!  Yes, I have such an idea and I'm beginning work on
it myself.  Your and other Cypherpunks participation is certainly
welcome and probably essential.

At the Cypherpunks meeting on Saturday (4/24), which was called to
discuss plans to counter the "Clipper chip" announcement, we agreed
that one prong of our attack should be to get strong crypto as widely
distributed as possible.

Unfortunately, wide distribution in the USA of PGP, the most popular
product, is inhibited because it violate's RSA's patents.  PGP has
already been chased off some USA FTP Sites.  But this problem has a
solution!  I confirmed with Jim Bidzos, President of RSA, who was
present at the meeting, that a USA Legal version of PGP could be
constructed by just replacing certain sections of code with free code
from RSAREF.  Since source for both PGP and RSAREF are available, this
sounds like an easy job.  Since no-one's actually done it yet, perhaps
it's not, but I will try.  I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can
chew. At best, I can compile and test only the MSDOS version of PGP. I
will certainly need help if USA-Legal MAC, AMIGA, UNIX, etc. versions
are to be available.

Note that since RSAREF cannot be exported, the USA Legal version(s) of
PGP will not replace the current version(s) for use outside the USA.
But the two versions -will- be able to exchange keys and messages and
so the combination of the two will offer the -only- legal method of
strong crypto for communication crossing USA borders.

This is a job for USA programmers.  We can't expect the foreign
programmers currently maintaining/improving PGP to do the job for us.
First, they have no incentive to do so; the current version of PGP is
perfectly legal to use outside the USA. Second, they can't (legally)
obtain a copy of RSAREF to work with.

I plan to delimit all changes for USA legality with conditional
compile statements (#ifdef USALEGAL), so I'm hopeful that Branko,
Jean-Loup, et.al.  will consent to merge those changes back into the
master source, to reduce the pain of generating USA Legal versions of
future releases of PGP.

I invite you, Derek, and anyone interested in participating, and
-especially- anyone who has -already- started a similar project to
contact me immediately via e-mail

    edgar@spectrx.saigon.com (Edgar W. Swank)

or by phone at (408)227-3471.  Here is an (illegal) PGP key if you
want to communicate encrypted:

-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: 2.2
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=kLEt
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

--
edgar@spectrx.saigon.com (Edgar W. Swank)
SPECTROX SYSTEMS +1.408.252.1005  Silicon Valley, Ca