Here we go yet again .. comments welcomes (crypto)

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 
Subpoena served on Austin Code Works for
material related to Moby Crypto.
 
 
At 10:30 PM EDT  Thursday, 16 Sept 1993 Theodore R. Siggins,
special agent for the Department of Treasury, U.S.
Customs Service office of enforcement for
Austin, TX (512) 482-5502 served the following
subpoena:
 
United States District Court
Northern District of California
 
TO:
 
Custodian of Records
Austin Code Works
11100 Leafwood Lane
Austin, TX
(512) 258-0785
 
SUBPOENA TO TESTIFY BEFORE GRAND JURY
documents of object(s)
 
 
PLACE
 
U.S. Courthouse & Federal Building
280 South First Street
San Jose, CA  95113
 
Grand Jury Room 2115
September 22, 1993  9:00 AM
 
YOU ARE ALSO COMMANDED to bring with you
 
Any and all correspondence, contracts, payments, and record,
including those stored as computer data, relating to the
international distribution of the commercial product "Moby
Crypto" and any other commercial product related to PGP and RSA
Source Code for the time period June 1, 1991 to the present.
 
 
CLERK
 
RICHARD W. WIERKING
by deputy  clerk (illegible)
 
This subpoena is issued on application of the United States of America
Michael J. Yamaguchi
United States Attorney
 
Assistant U.S. Attorney
William P. Keane
280 S. First St., Suite 371
San Jose, CA  95113
(408) 291-7221
s/a Robin Sterzer, Customs
93-1348(SJ) 93-1(SJ)
 
9 September 1993
 
 
served by
 
Theodore R. Siggins
special agent
Department of Treasury
U.S. Customs Service
Office of Enforcement
P.O. Box 99
Austin, TX 78767
 
(FTS) 770-5502
(512) 482-5502
 
 
--------------------------- BACKGROUND ----------------------------
 
The day before yesterday I faxed the following to the NSA:
 
 
 
Grady Ward
3449 Martha Ct.
Arcata, CA  95521
(707) 826-7715
grady () netcom com
 
 
 
Charlotte Knepper
National Security Agency
301 688 7834
FAX 301 688 8183
 
                                                                        14
Sep 93
 
 
Re:  Moby Crypto and the Austin Code Works
 
 
Recently you phoned Maria Guthery at the Austin Code Works (512-258-0785)
to voice your concern about the publication for export
of my product 'Moby Crypto'.
 
As the editor and author of the compilation I made sure not to include
any executable code -- only the algorithmic description in C source code
that can be found (and exported) from scores of books and journals from
the US distributed throughout the world.
 
I believe that this material qualifies for the 'public domain' technical
documentation exception under the current DTR rules.
It seems to me that proscribing the publication of material because it is
conveyed on a magnetic media rather than paper pulp is an NSA initiative
that is both destructive to our basic freedom of expression and to the
trade renaissance that Vice President Al Gore and the Clinton Administration
are trying to foster.
 
Even the Supreme Court recognizes the role of the computer media in
protecting our freedom; beginning this 1993 calendar year all decisions
will be provided in electronic form. Further, as you may know, it was
recently decided that White House records in electronic form must be
protected as a permanent archive of our government.  Clearly, magnetic
media must be treated as a logical extension of the power and fundamental
right of the print media.
 
Please phone, fax, e-mail or post your ideas or any literature to me that
you think useful if I have misapprehended the situation.
 
Of course if you wish I will send you a gratis copy of the software
(about nine megabytes of sources for DES, RSA, IDEA, Lucifer, PGP, SHA,
and so on) for your advice and comments.
 
Very truly yours,
 
 
GRADY WARD
 
 
--------------------- WHAT YOU SHOULD DO ---------------------
 
NSA and the US Treasury has started a new, agressive campaign to
prevent the spread of cryptographic ideas, algorithms, sources,
and documentation.  The subpoena was served on the ACW in the night
because they MIGHT have sold a copy of source code, already available
worlwide, to a foreign national.
 
If you value the freedom to disseminate ideas on both paper and magentic
and electronic media, you should immediately preserve your right to
have such knowledge by obtaining a copy of the source to Pretty Good Privacy
and all other cryptographic materials before a possible complete blackout
of such material is attempted by the US authorities.
 
It is not yet against the law to possess source code to PGP, the world's
foremost encryption application in the United States.  Source is available
for a variety of platforms including MS-DOS, Unix, and Macintosh from
the following sites:
 
soda.berkeley.edu
ghost.dsi.unimi.it
nic.funet.fi
ota.ox.ac.uk
van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca
 
and many other sites
 
For more information about PGP,
send a blank mail message to:
pgpinfo () mantis co uk
 
 



-- 
Grady Ward                                         grady () netcom com
3449 Martha Ct.                           compiler of Moby lexicons
Arcata, CA  95521-4884            e-mail or finger grady () netcom com
(707) 826-7715  (voice/24hr FAX)               for more information






message 2:




> From pgp-dev () ra oc com Fri Sep 17 00:34:20 1993
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1993 02:32:46 -0500
Message-Id: <9309170735.AA23358 () columbine cgd ucar EDU>
Errors-To: hughes () soda berkeley edu
Reply-To: pgp-dev () ra oc com
Originator: pgp-dev () ra oc com
Sender: pgp-dev () ra oc com
Precedence: bulk
From: Philip Zimmermann <prz () columbine cgd ucar EDU>
To: kelly () netcom com
Subject: PGP Customs investigation subpoena
X-Listserver-Version: 6.0 -- UNIX ListServer by Anastasios Kotsikonas


I will be posting a note similar to this one later on Friday 
to various newsgroups.  You saw it here first.


-prz


--------------------------------------------------------------


On Tuesday, 14 September 93, Leonard Mikus, president of ViaCrypt,
also known as LEMCOM Systems, in Phoenix, Arizona, was served a
Subpoena to Testify Before Grand Jury, to produce documents.  The
subpoena was issued by the US District Court of Northern California,
by Assistant US Attorney William P. Keane in San Jose, as part of an
investigation from the San Jose office of US Customs, conducted by
Special Agent Robin Sterzer.  The US Attorney above Keane is Michael
J. Yamaguchi.


ViaCrypt is the company that will be selling a fully licensed
commercial version of PGP, starting in November.  ViaCrypt has a
license from PKP to sell products that embody the patents held by
PKP.  That includes PGP, using the RSA algorithm.


The subpoena, dated 9 September, orders the production of "Any and
all correspondence, contracts, payments, and records, including those
stored as computer data, involving international distribution related
to ViaCrypt, PGP, Philip Zimmermann, and anyone or any entity acting
on behalf of Philip Zimmermann for the time period June 1, 1991 to
the present."  The date specified for the production of documents is
22 September 93.


The written agreement between ViaCrypt and myself explicitly states
that US State Department cryptographic export controls will be
adhered to.


The implications of this turn of events are that this US Customs
investigation has escalated to the level of a Federal Grand Jury and
a US Attorney.  US Customs says that this change was precipitated by
a ruling recently handed down from the State Department that PGP is
not exportable.  Other subpoenas and/or search warrants are expected.


I am the principal target of the investigation.  I have advised EFF,
CPSR, and my other attorneys of the situation.  A legal defense fund
will be set up by my lead attorney (Phil Dubois, 303 444-3885) here
in Boulder. 


This case raises some serious public policy questions regarding First
Amendment rights to publish, rights to privacy as affected by
widespread availability of cryptographic technology, the equivalance
of electronic publication with paper publication, the availablity of
lawful domestic cryptographic technology in the face of export
controls, and certain other Constitutional rights.  This may turn into
the test case for these issues.




-Philip Zimmermann
 prz () acm org
 303 541-0140