On Wed, Aug 25, 1999, Fairlight ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) said:
|
| But yeah...this is getting political. Sorry for raising the question...I
| should have just let Telsa's post alone (although I'm slightly less
| ignorant now, for having questioned it). Sorry to have troubled the rest
| of you with the off-topic-ness of it all.
Well ... just to muddy the waters a bit more ... :-) ...
Noone seeems to be aware of the recent (within the past ~6 months)
ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which overturned the
ITAR restrictions on Constitutional grounds.
Of course that ruling only applies to the 9th Circuit region (which
includes San Francisco, etc), and the Administration has stated their
intent to appeal the ruling (to the Supreme Court).
I'm not sure of the status of the Appeal ... if it was filed before
the SC recessed, or if they're waiting for its next session. In any
case, it seems that by next year we will *finally* get THE definitive
ruling on whether the ITAR idiocy will stand, or not (assuming that
the SC decides to hear the case ... if they *don't*, the 9th Circuit
decision will stand, but again, it will only be applicable in that
Court's geographic jurisdiction ... which will *really* make the whole
crypto mess even more confused, if that is possible :-) ).
BTW, it should be noted that the 9th Circuit is not only the most liberal
of the U.S. Court of Appeals, but it is also the one whose decisions have
been overturned the most often by the SC (quite regularly, too, I might
add).
Still ... there does seem to be a chance that some, if not all, of this
nonsense will finally be ended. We can but hope!
Oh, and coincidentally, the patents on the RSA algorithms are due to expire
next year ...
/kim
