[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > Kikutani Makoto writes: > > I'm a Japanese living in the United States, but not a permanent > > resident. I've heared that the usage of PGP in the States by a person > > like me is controversial. > > You heard wrong. Your nationality and residency status is irrelevant.
Well, not entirely irrelevant, though not really important for this case. It might not be legal for someone to give him PGP or explain how crypto works even while he's in the US. However, Japan is not exactly a big terrorist nation and this is weakest part of the whole thing as far as first amendment violations goes. The government has not to my knowedge even threatened to apply this part anywhere, and many universities with foreign grad students would line up to help defend someone prosecuted on such a basis. In any case it wouldn't be you breaking the law, but the person helping you use PGP. But really, i wouldn't worry about this, the only things the government or the patent holders are likely to worry about are export of crypto and significant commercial use of RSA, respectively. So the safe thing to do is use pgp-us while in the US, and delete it from your computer before leaving the US. (that said, i'm not a lawyer and don't blame me if i'm wrong) greg
