Re: Cantwell Bill

[Jim Gillogly <jim@rand.org>]

Somebody writes:
> Sumex-aim.stanford.edu, the internet's biggest Mac ftp archive has
> been *EXPORTING* MacPGP2.2, many times a day, every day for over

The reason I don't consider your Stunning Revelation an important news
flash is that it's just one example of the many ways crypto is actually
exported.  For example, PGP 2.6 was overseas within hours of its release.

A more direct comparison is with DES: NIST has DES code available in
soft copy in Appendix A of its publication fips181.txt, accessible in
their public FTP directory with no warnings about export restrictions.

The Cantwell stuff is extremely important for commercial products, but
for private crypto (e.g. non-profit and non-infringing PGP
implementations) it simply decriminalizes the existing vigorous export
activity; rather like decriminalizing the use of marijuana.

	Jim Gillogly
	Highday, 24 Forelithe S.R. 1994, 19:35