Exporting Encryption to Canada (Was Re: Security Hole) (fwd)

[Web4Lib Moderator]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 1995 16:05:47 +0500
From: Paul Merriam <pmerriam at maple.net>
To: web4lib at library.berkeley.edu
Subject: Exporting Encryption to Canada (Was Re: Security Hole)

rinehart at uclink2.berkeley.edu (Richard Rinehart) writes:
> I think it's also the case that secure software they sell to people outside
> the US is not quite as secure as that sold in the US, because of American
> export law which views hard encryption software as a form of "munitions"
> (see the controversy over PGP). Whether the software is just less secure,
> or they use different methods of securing foreign software, I'm not sure.

and lbspodic at uxmail.ust.hk (Edward Spodick, HKUST Library, 2358-6743) 
writes:
> As far as I have been able to determine here in Hong Kong, the
> versions of Netscape available overseas are not just less
> secure, but have no security features at all.  I could have
> brought one with me from the US, as a US citizen, but I would
> probably still be classified as an arms dealer if I did so -
> especially if I let anyone else even see it.  I toyed with the
> idea of ordering that t-shirt for sale on the net, that has an
> RSA algorithm on it.  But I don't want to go to jail, or have my
> local visa revoked under pressure from the US gov't. After all,
> the way the law works, if you wear the t-shirt in the presence of
> a foreign national, you have broken the law, you arms dealer you!

Web4Lib readers should take note that the version of Netscape 
Secure Navigator exported to Canada uses a 128-bit key;  identical to 
that used in the US version.
(Canada has a long-standing munitions import/export agreement with 
the United States.)
________________________________
Paul Merriam 
1579 River Road, Manotick, Ontario
http://www.well.com/www/drumlin/