Re: A2-DES 1.0 DES encryption for the Apple II (1/1)

[fadden@uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden)]

In article <CnFzxM.E62@freenet.carleton.ca> aa382@freenet2.carleton.ca (Marc Sira) writes:
>My understanding is that an FTP site can archive it; FTP _users_
>implicitly agree by using the site that they won't export the material.
>You'll see warnings to this effect on many sites that have things like
>UFC-crypt on them.  Note that the export prohibition on DES doesn't
>apply to certain countries (like Canada) that have treaties to get
>around your govt's silly law. ;)

Yup, exactly.  However, the idea that I'm committing a crime whenever
somebody *else* does something confuses me greatly. :-)

Encryption-wise, Canada is a great place to be.

>Jawaid: yeah, it does apply to passwd stuff, etc. People buying US-made
>Unix systems in non-treaty countries get them without a crypt(3) function,
>for instance. They typically have to get that part from some reverse-
>engineered code on a site outside the US somewhere.

Only if you ship source.  Netrek binaries with RSA encryption are
freely distributed, because it's only use to authenticate the client,
and you can't get the algorithm except by reverse-engineering the code.

(The funny part about RSA is that the piece of code we can't export is
just a function call... all the rest of it is math routines that manipulate
large integers.)

At Amdahl, we ship different tapes to foreign countries, with an "ides"
library instead of a "des" library.  Don't know what's different about it
(it's probably just easier for the NSA to break).

>Marc Sira                  |

-- 
fadden@uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden)

"Our UNIX is bigger than your UNIX"
[ These are my opinions, not Amdahl policies. ]