[47988] in Cypherpunks
Re: Crippled Notes export encryption
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Rich Salz)
Thu Jan 25 10:52:14 1996
From: Rich Salz <rsalz@osf.org>
Date: Thu, 25 Jan 1996 10:43:58 -0500
To: olbon@dynetics.com
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
> Seriously, this just illustrates the idiocy of banning "hooks" in software.
Yes. That's why an API that supported generic data transforms and
that included compression and for non-export encryption would be a useful
thing. I have a start toward such an API definition that I will email to
anyone who might wanna finish it off. I started doing it around the time
that Raph talked about his per-user crypto server.
> How does one define a "hook"? Just providing source code could be defined
> as providing a hook, since a good programmer could then modify it to do
> crypto. Also, how about the various kits and tools used to integrate pgp
> with pine, eudora, etc -- are these not "hooks"?
They define a hook. They define it on a case-by-case basis. "They" is
the Office of Defence Trade Controls, in conjunction with their consulting
experts primarily people in the department of Export Control at the NSA.
Luckily the ITAR talks about willful violations.
/r$
