Re: PGP ban rumor - any truth?

[smb@research.att.com]

>>From: polaris93@aol.com
>>To: libernet@Dartmouth.EDU
>>Date: Thu, 28 Apr 94 22:38:15 EDT
>>Subject: Re: Somethin' Spooky ...
>>Errors-To: owner-libernet@Dartmouth.EDU
>>Sender: owner-libernet@Dartmouth.EDU
>>Reply-To: libernet-d@Dartmouth.EDU
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>>
>>I just purchased Bruce Schneier's _Applied Cryptography_ (John Wiley & Sons,
>>1994;  ISBN # 0-471-59756-2;  $49.95).  Worth every cent I paid for it.  It
>>covers every single possible aspect of computer information security --
>>including a section on the infamous PGP =  the security program Pretty Good
>>Privacy," which can _not_ be broken by _anyone_ who does not have whatever
>>key you yourself choose for the encryptation on your data.  The next edition
>>will _not_ carry that chapter -- the government has stepped in and is
>>threatening a court action unless the publishers strike it from the next
>>edition.  So get your copy now -- and get one of PGP, because the feds have a
>>bill _already_ in the words to make sale, distribution, etc of it completely
>>illegal in the US.

I find this very hard to believe.  Do you have a source for this
rumor?  The rationale?  The legal grounds for this alleged bill?

First of all, the book already exists and has sold tens of thousands of
copies.  Even assuming that there was somehow some classified
information in it, it's already out -- and the courts won't let them
try to put the genie back in the bottle.  They rarely even permit
prepublication suppression; see, for example, the Pentagon Papers case
or the H-bomb design in Progressive.  (Btw -- read the opinions; don't
just look at the outcome.)

Second -- the book has far too little about PGP to be worth the
effort.  Apart from the source code to IDEA -- which is readily
available in the published version of Lai's dissertation (and which is
printed by a non-U.S.  publisher) -- the discussion of PGP is purely
descriptive, and occupies less than a page.  Contrast that with, say,
the book's discussion of PEM.

Third -- Bruce knows nothing of this.  At least, he said nothing about
it when he was here at Murray Hill last week, and I'm sure he would
have, given the other topics we talked about.

Fourth -- the Commerce Department has already granted Phil Karn a
blanket export license.  They're going to permit the current edition to
be exported freely, but suppress it domestically -- with all that
implies in terms of court fights, newspaper stories, etc.?

Fifth -- it's a book, it's got no nuclear secrets, and it's not
obscene.  He can say anything he want.  If Bruce obtained some
information improperly, he might be in trouble personally -- but the
book itself is more or less untouchable.  (C.f. the Phillip Agee case.)

I've spent far too much time on this already.  Do you have any real
evidence for this rumor?