[plug] Crypt/Decrypt?

[Bill Cullen]

Perhaps I should add the script to my sig and send a message
to someone at Microsoft in the US. I wonder if they would return
my mail with the sig still attached? Even better, what if there
mail server bounced the mail back to me? Would I then have a moral
obligation to report the matter to the FBI? With all of M$'s 
recent legal attention do you think that the media would also want
to know that they are exporting "munitions" illegally.

Perhaps I should set the reply to address to Serbia, Libya or Iraq.

Matt Kemner wrote:
> The reason no distribution comes with encryption, is because under U.S.
> law encryption is classed as a weapon, and it's illegal to export weapons
> from the U.S.  That would mean RedHat can't sell to anyone but U.S.
> citizens, and those U.S. citizens would not be allowed to
> a) put it on a world-accessible ftp site
> b) post the CDs to another country
> 
> etc.
> 
> Import is fine however (surprise surprise) so I could send you the "RSA in
> 3 lines of perl" signature at the end of this message (which is 3 lines of
> perl that allows you to encrypt your files with RSA, which is the strong
> encryption used in PGP) but then you couldn't reply to my message without
> deleting those lines, because you're not allowed to "export" that program.
> 
> On the other hand if you were to print them out and snail-mail it to me,
> you wouldn't be breaking the law, or so I'm told.
> 
> The "RSA in 3 lines of perl" was written precisely to show how stupid the
> laws are, however, with many U.S. citizens adding it to their signature
> file, deliberately becoming Arms Traffickers because they believe if
> everyone does it, the U.S. can't possibly prosecute them all.
> 
> http://www.dcs.ex.ac.uk/~aba/rsa/ for the code and more info.
> 
>  - Matt


-- 
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  Bill Cullen, ENFP, billc at wantree.com.au, Perth, Western Australia
               Life's too important to take seriously.
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