Yeah, for example I have always wondered why Sun, in JCE 1.2.1, has gone
through the trouble of introducing the signed CSP mechanism at the same time
when their domestic-strength provider (which in theory should be good enough
even for Saddam) was made freely exportable. By the way, has anybody tried
to decompile their code to see if by any chance it leaks bits of the secret
key or has any other flaw? (unintentional, of course ;-) )
Enzo
----- Original Message -----
From: "R. A. Hettinga" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Digital Bearer Settlement List"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2001 10:54 PM
Subject: Crypto regs still tricky
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/16527.html
>
> Crypto regs still tricky
> By: Kevin Poulsen
> Posted: 01/02/2001 at 03:23 GMT
>
>
> Over a year after the US government first announced the liberalization of
> encryption export rules, a tangle of vestigial regulations might still
trip
> up unwary developers, experts say.
>
> "Never work under the belief that encryption is not controlled," said
Susan
> Kotila, project manager with Apple's export license department. "I've run
> into a lot of developers where I've had to tell them, I've got the name of
> a good lawyer, but you're in violation right now."
>
> The last eighteen months of the Clinton administration heralded a series
of
> significant reforms in the export restrictions that had kept strong
> security and privacy technology out of commercial products for years. But
> some regulation remains, and developers who include unbreakable encryption
> in a product that's sold overseas or online still need to jump through
> bureaucratic hoops to avoid running afoul of the law, said Kotila.
>
> "Developers, be aware that you do need to go through one-time government
> review on your crypto before you export it," said Kotila, who delivered an
> impromptu lecture on the topic Tuesday at the 2001 Mac Crypto Conference
> held at Apple's Cupertino, California campus.
>
> Apple's John Hurley blamed the regulations for keeping support for plug-in
> Cryptographic Service Providers (CSPs) out of Mac OSX, a feature that
would
> have permitted independent developers to create their own replacements for
> the operating system's built-in encryption. "We do want people to be able
> to write CSPs," said Hurley. "But we're stuck by export laws."
>
> Strong crypto is generally exportable, but in many cases companies are
> still required to submit a copy of new software to the US government for a
> thirty day review. Open source code has fewer restrictions, except when
> part of a commercial product.
>
> Cindy Cohn, legal direct of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF),
> agrees that reports of the death of crypto regulations are greatly
> exaggerated.
>
> "The government came out and said they were giving up, but when you read
> the fine print, they didn't give up entirely," says Cohn, who represented
> mathematician Daniel Bernstein in his successful First Amendment challenge
> to the old crypto regulations. "They took something complex and made it
> even more complex. They've got caveats for every little thing."
>
> Details on the rules and various exemptions may be found on the US
Commerce
> Department's Bureau of Export Administration Web site.
>
> © 2001 SecurityFocus.com. All rights reserved.
> --
> -----------------
> R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
> "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
> [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
> experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
>
