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Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!lll-crg!hoptoad!gnu
From: gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore)
Newsgroups: net.crypt
Subject: DES_PC posted to mod.sources, but canceled
Message-ID: <1111@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: Mon, 22-Sep-86 04:18:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: hoptoad.1111
Posted: Mon Sep 22 04:18:28 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 22-Sep-86 07:58:04 EDT
References: <240@mirror.UUCP>
Organization: Nebula Consultants in San Francisco
Lines: 32

I submitted a purported software implementation of DES in C to
mod.sources, and it was posted on the 14th of September in Volume 7,
Issue 27.  However, a Canadian Usenetter noticed it and fired off a
message to Rich $alz, the mod.sources moderator, and me, informing us
that we were probably violating US export controls.

Apparently it is not legal in our free country to export a public domain
program that implements a published national standard protocol -- if the
protocol relates to cryptography.

Rich then submitted a cancel message, but since the article had reached
Canada, it had probably also reached Europe and other parts of the world.
Eventually the cancel will catch up with it (it hasn't yet, on Hoptoad)
but for a short time the DES program will exist on many systems.

The "References:" line of the article you are now reading, points to
the mod.sources article.  If you use vnews or readnews, you should be
able to see if the mod.sources article is there on your system by using
the "p" (parent article) command.  Rn users are out of luck as far as I
know, you just have to read through mod.sources and look.

We are looking into the legalities and it will probably be reposted,
either with a "usa" distribution if the government slimeball censors must
be appeased, or to the whole net if sanity sets in.

If anyone on net.crypt knows more about the export controls on cryptography,
please contact me.  No flames please.  I am trying to increase the
amount of useful PD software available to the human race.  Non-amurrikans
are people too, despite what the US government would have you think.
-- 
John Gilmore  {sun,ptsfa,lll-crg,ihnp4}!hoptoad!gnu   jgil...@lll-crg.arpa
		     May the Source be with you!