EE Times on PRZ

[Hal <hfinney@shell.portal.com>]

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The Jan 16 issue of EE Times has an excellent article on the legal
controversy surrounding Phil Zimmermann and PGP, positioned top-right
front-cover for maximal exposure.  It describes the aftermath of a
meeting last week between Phil's attorney, Philip Dubois, and the
government lawyer handling the case.  "'We told the prosecutor our
concerns,' Dubois said.  'He agreed to consider them.  We might hear
back in a month or two.  He didn't make any promises.'"

(Sometimes it seems like the gov't is dragging this case out
intentionally.  I believe the uncertainty does have a chilling effect on
private development of strong crypto, which would be gone if the
government announced it was not going to pursue the case, or if they did
bring charges and lost.)

Another interesting quote: "Zimmermann is not in danger of being indicted
for willfully exporting PGP. Rather, the U.S. attorney's office, here, is
considering charging him for making PGP available in such a manner that
it could be exported by a third party."  What the hell is this?  Can
anyone point to the statute they may be referring to here?  This seems
awfully broad.

This, from a sidebar, is really surprising:  "In contrast, public keys
allow the overt publication of an encryption key, because decryption keys
can only be derived through a mathematically difficult process, such as
large prime-number factoring.  Contrary to popular belief, the NSA can
decrypt public keys of most practical key sizes."  I wonder what this
means?  If it is a claim that the NSA can factor 1024 bit moduli that
would certainly come as a big surprise.  If they are saying that they can
do 512 bits that would be more believable although of interest.  It is
strange that the author would include a statement like this without
attribution or evidence.

Generally, the article is very favorable towards Phil and an excellent
overview of the case.

Hal

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