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This is interesting. If I'm reading it correctly, it continues to give open source crypto an advantage over commercial crypto, since commerical crypto is not p
by runningdogx 16y ago
This is interesting. If I'm reading it correctly, it continues to give open source crypto an advantage over commercial crypto, since commerical crypto is not publicly available and therefore sellers have to do some due diligence about their customers to make sure they're not selling to e.g. a North Korean government front.
I don't understand why the BIS can't say the cat's out of the bag, and deregulate encryption software completely. If North Korean and Iran and Libya aren't using good encryption, it's not because they lack access to it.
If a company can make money selling crypto to regimes like that, what's the problem? Money flows into crypto companies' pockets at the expense of idiots in those regimes who could be implementing their own systems based on open source crypto software, without paying companies from imperialist, corrupt, decadent western societies a dime.
Why is the state department opposed to letting U.S. companies make money off of enemy regimes?
- jcr 16y agoWhen President Clinton was asked by a reporter why he had Cuban cigars, he responded, "Don't think of it as supporting the Cuban economy, instead, think of it as burning their crops."
- zach 16y agoActually Reagan's secretary of state Alexander Haig. It totally sounds like something an old conservative ex-army guy would say, doesn't it?
- jcr 16y agoYes, Haig was reported to have said it, possibly first. There are similar claims for Clinton, Jack Kennedy[1], and Arnold Schwarzenegger having said it. [1] http://www.extremeink.com/jokes/2008_08_01_archive.html http://www.extremeink.com/jokes/2008_08_01_archive.html
- zach 16y agoNo doubt countless Cuban smokers have said it since Mort Sahl attributed to him, because it's a great line. I can't see Clinton, famously circumspect in such matters, cracking that joke to a reporter, though. I like the Kennedy misattribution better, but the attested anecdotes about Jack Kennedy and Cuban cigars are pretty great too: http://cubanmadecigars.com/kennedy.html http://cubanmadecigars.com/kennedy.html