Re: FYI: NSA Requests Source Code From Elvis+

[Tim May <tcmay@got.net>]

At 9:18 AM -0700 7/7/97, Ulf M�ller wrote:
>> The National Security Agency has asked Sun Microsystems Inc. and Elvis+,
>> the Russian networking company in which Sun has a 10 percent stake, to
>> turn over the source code of its SunScreen SKIP E+.
>
>Why should the US government get access to the source code of foreign
>product being imported to the US?

Because the United States of America is no longer a nation of laws. And
because, as some clever wag put it several years ago, "'national security'
is the root pass phrase of the Constitution."

(Sidestepping the issue that there are many thousands of
variously-interpreted laws, and presumably some law could be found
somewhere which says the NSA has the authority to demand whatever they
wish...)

I'd like to see Sun take a strong stance on this: "Show us the specific law
which lets you look at _imports_."

Actually, they have a sort of case for looking at imports: If imports are
unrestricted but exports are controlled, even if the export is just
re-export of an import (!), then someone somewhere in government presumably
has to confirm they are the same.

(And there are even some laws banning reexport of cryptographic code even
if it was imported, as we all know.)

But the real reason is that NSA and Commerce don't like this trend of
foreign developers sidestepping the U.S. crypto export laws...as with
Elvis+, Stronghold, etc. And they ain't going to allow it to go on for much
longer.

And criminals in the Congress will compliantly give them the laws they want
to put an end to this.

--Tim May



There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws.
Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!"
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
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."