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Re[2]: use of RSA outside US
At 3:59 PM on 3/30/95, "david d `zoo' zuhn" <zoo@armadillo.com> replied
to my (Tom Zmudzinski <zmudzint@cc.ims.disa.mil>) 9:04 AM posting:
> // I'm not a lawyer (my parents are married), but I have to wonder if
> // your "someone" (as he/she is supposedly the only one of you within
> // the jurisdiction of US courts) could be charged with conspiracy to
> // commit a felony, i.e., circumventing the US export control laws.
>
> There can be no conspiracy to commit a crime that didn't exist. Export
> control laws say *nothing* about importing crypto code into the USA.
Ah, but the net effect is exporting, not importing, cryptography that
is controlled as a "munition". (For a real shaggy dawg on this topic,
check Risks 17.73 for Matt Blaze's 6 Jan 95 posting "My life as an
international arms courier".) IMHO, history shows us that this
blockade is doomed to failure, but that doesn't mean that the Old
Guard isn't going to try ("those who do not learn from history are
doomed to repeat it").
Of course there's another aspect to this: If Jonathon Tidswell lives
in one of those countries that outlaw all private cryptography unless
the local police-state has a copy of the keys (France & England head
this list BTW), he's breaking _local_ law if he ever uses his new toy.
/z/
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