From Steve Crocker Re: GOVERNMENT PROBES "PRETTY GOOD PRIVACY" EXPORT

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

Posted-Date: Thu, 28 Apr 1994 23:31:52 -0400
To: farber () central cis upenn edu (David Farber)
Cc: interesting-people () eff org (interesting-people mailing list)
Subject: Re: GOVERNMENT PROBES "PRETTY GOOD PRIVACY" EXPORT
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 94 23:30:13 -0400
From: Stephen D Crocker <crocker () tis com>


"At the heart ... is whether ... Zimmerman was responsible for placing
the program on the Internet, where is was picked up..."


There's an important thread in this story that bears close watching.
The wording of this story suggests that if Zimmerman did, in fact,
place PGP on the Internet, then he necessarily violated the export
regulations.  How can this be?  Is the Internet inextricably outside
the country?


If the Government is going to press this matter, one of the issues
that has to be cleared up is what constitutes an act of export.  If
simply placing something on an anonymous FTP server constitutes
"export," then life will become pretty complicated.  As Americans,
we're used to wandering pretty freely inside our borders.  Very few of
us encounter our borders on a daily basis.  If the Internet is deemed
to be our border, then the U.S. becomes balkanized.  Every
inter-company communication is a cross-border transaction.


Seems ludicrous, right?  Then the only other conclusion I can see is
that posting something on a server in the U.S. cannot, by itself,
constitute an export act.




Steve






> From:    farber () central cis upenn edu (David Farber)
> To:      interesting-people () eff org (interesting-people mailing list)
> Date:    Thu, 28 Apr 1994 21:32:30 -0400
> Subject: GOVERNMENT PROBES "PRETTY GOOD PRIVACY" EXPORT
>
> GOVERNMENT PROBES "PRETTY GOOD PRIVACY" EXPORT
>         The creator of the "Pretty Good Privacy" encryption program is
> being investigated by the FBI, and a federal grand jury is examining
> whether he broke laws against exporting encryption codes.  At the heart of
> the issue is whether Philip Zimmermann was responsible for placing the
> program on the Internet, where it was picked up and used by networkers in
> other countries. Zimmermann has claimed he did not personally post any
> messages containing the program. (Wall Street Journal 4/28/94 A1)