[80824] in Cypherpunks
Re: US grants export license for PGP
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jeff Barber)
Thu May 29 09:49:55 1997
From: Jeff Barber <jeffb@issl.atl.hp.com>
To: jgrasty@gate.net
Date: Thu, 29 May 1997 08:31:08 -0400 (EDT)
Cc: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net (Cypherpunks List)
In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.32.19970529002341.006ac818@pop.gate.net> from "Joey Grasty" at May 29, 97 00:23:41 am
Reply-To: Jeff Barber <jeffb@issl.atl.hp.com>
Joey Grasty writes:
> At 08:00 PM 5/28/97 -0700, Lucky Green wrote:
> >PGP crypto approved for export
>
> Alright, what's the catch? What kind of GAK does PGP have to
> stick in to get this approval? Encyphering minds want to know...
The catch is that the license only extends to business use by
subsidiaries of certain large US corporations.
See PGPInc's press release at: http://www.pgp.com/newsroom/prel34.cgi
It may be moot since some versions of PGP are available around the
world, but this strikes me as patently unfair to all those companies
not big enough to be on The List.
On the other hand, maybe this is the beginning of the end. It seems
to me that it will be difficult now to deny a similar license to
Netscape or Microsoft or...
-- Jeff (currently employed by a Real Company :-)
