[7159] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
European Union sets free export of encryption products (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (P.J. Ponder)
Wed May 24 08:22:24 2000
Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 07:03:10 -0400 (EDT)
From: "P.J. Ponder" <ponder@freenet.tlh.fl.us>
To: cryptography@c2.net
Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.96.1000524070042.12095A-100000@fn3.freenet.tlh.fl.us>
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European Union sets free export of encryption products
Jelle van Buuren 22.05.2000
EU sets encryption free, USA protest
The European ministers of Foreign Affairs are expected to decide monday to
lift all barriers to the export of encryption software to countries
outside the European Union.
Till now, companies wanting to export encryption products had to ask for
permission. The authorities first investigated if the buyer was 'secure'.
Intelligence services also investigated the products, which made it
possible to copy the keys or demand weakening of the encryption standard
as a condition for approval.
Decisions could drag on for months, which hampered the trade in encryption
software. Besides that, the European industry has asked repeatedly for
secure and good encryption, as a condition to boost ecommerce. They want
to develop, use and export their own encryption products, as there is
mistrust towards American encryption products which are believed to be
weakened by the American intelligence agencies, or have secret backdoors.
According to the spokesman of commissioner Liikanen of the Information
Society, secret services still can ask companies to the destination of
their export:
'But they can't any longer block the export. Companies are allowed to
export their encryption products without any interference of the
intelligence community.'
<link in message below to the rest of the story:>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 06:42:56 +0000 (GMT)
From: patrickv@altern.org
Reply-To: ISTF Discussion <istf-participants@lyris.isoc.org>
To: ISTF Discussion <istf-participants@lyris.isoc.org>
Subject: European Union sets free export of encryption products
For your information. Thanks to Slashdot.org for the link.
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/8179/1.html
Patrick Vande Walle
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