Re: SAFE Bill is a Disaster--"Use a cipher, go to prison"

[Tim May <tcmay@got.net>]

At 10:27 AM -0800 5/1/97, sameer wrote:
>>
>> Oh, and Sameer, those products you re-export, like Stronghold, may soon be
>> banned by SAFE. It may not even be legal, even according to current law,
>> for you to operate out of Anguilla.
>
>	We don't re-export anything. All development happens outside
>the US, and all sales to customers outside the US happen from outside
>the US. As far as operating from Anguilla -- it would require
>renouncing my US citizenship, yes.

I'm no expert in these areas, but doesn't this consitute "providing hooks"
for strong crypto? The EARs say that a "hook" for inserting crypto modules
once a product is exported are essentially as bad as providing the crypto
before the product is exported.

Also, my understanding is that U.S. companies cannot send experts or
programmers to non-U.S. sites with the intention of thereby violating U.S.
export laws. (I once asked Jim Bidzos why he did not simply move his key
developers beyond the borders, and this is the answer he gave, repeated by
others at later times on the CP and other lists. So far as I know, this has
never been tested in court. Such a test would be comparable to Bernstein,
Junger, Karns, etc. in significance.)

--Tim


There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1398269     | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."