Re: Distributing cryptographic code

[Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>]

At 11:44 AM 5/18/97 +0100, Adam Back wrote:
>> I don`t recall what the situation is in the US, is it the case that
>> the provider of the information is guilty of export, or the person
>> that actually downloads it, if it is available via anonymous FTP???

>The downloader by definition is restricted by his own national laws
>not by US laws.  US attempted world policeman attitude does not mean
>that US laws apply outside the US, particularly not to non-US citizens
>outside the US.

They may apply to you anyway - they're not very enforceable if you're
outside US territory, though if you try to visit the US once they've
pegged you as a crypto-terrorist aider-and-abetter of drug smugglers,
money launderers, child pornographers, and Commies, they could give you
a hard time.  Just because you haven't been caught YET doesn't make you
innocent :-)  
Remember the Canadian author / Disney hero Farley Mowat?  
He once got annoyed enough at the US military for flying nuclear-armed
bombers over Canada that he shot at some as they crossed the border.
Sure, his .22 caliber rifle wasn't going to hit a plane at 30,000 feet,
and he was just making a political statement by it, but he was
banned from the US for years.

>Self appointed world policemen are fooling themselves if they think
>they have any control over bit flow.

As long as it keeps Americans from using strong crypto on an 
everyday basis, for everything, and from taking the attitude that
their privacy is their own business, it's working.
Doesn't matter if a few foreign spies can talk to each other.

>(Yeah, I know tell that to Noriega, but that was simple kidnap).
Different case - Noriega was on the CIA payroll, and he embarassed his
masters :-)

#			Thanks;  Bill
# Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts@ix.netcom.com
# You can get PGP outside the US at ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/crypto/pgp
#   (If this is a mailing list or news, please Cc: me on replies.  Thanks.)