4 ms·

How do you enforce a ban on encryption? Weren't the algorithms mostly open source by 1999? Or why aren't other countries like Japan & Canada in the same positio

by Herring 14y ago

How do you enforce a ban on encryption? Weren't the algorithms mostly open source by 1999? Or why aren't other countries like Japan & Canada in the same position?

dasony 14y ago
The browser (which implements the encryption) would be banned. I remember I could choose between US only version (128-bit encryption) and international version when I download Netscape. Of course I could just download the US version, but Korean government couldn't enforce banks to use 128-bit officially. (not to mention IE bundled with Korean Windows would not have supported it.) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_in_the_U...
derleth 14y ago
> How do you enforce a ban on encryption? By classifying it as a munition and using those laws. Which don't apply to books like "Applied Cryptography" by Bruce Schneier, due to the First Amendment. Even if they have source code printed in their appendices. Oh, you mean effectively? Uh... I suppose we'll have to get back to you on that.
- stcredzero 14y ago
  > How do you enforce a ban on encryption? By classifying it as a munition... Oh, you mean effectively? Uh... Back in the day, someone printed up a T-shirt that had a 4-line Perl script that did RSA and so was a munition. (Later reduced to 3 lines.) There was a barcode that contained the bits for the script, which you could use to automatically read the program into a properly configured computer, so the T-Shirt was indeed a munition under those regulations.
ajross 14y ago
The ban wasn't on the algorithms, it was on products using them. You could write a book describing RC4 or Blowfish and ship it anywhere, but you couldn't ship a web browser that implemented it outside the US until 1996.

4 ms·

How do you enforce a ban on encryption? Weren't the algorithms mostly open source by 1999? Or why aren't other countries like Japan & Canada in the same positio

by Herring 14y ago

How do you enforce a ban on encryption? Weren't the algorithms mostly open source by 1999? Or why aren't other countries like Japan & Canada in the same position?

dasony 14y ago
The browser (which implements the encryption) would be banned. I remember I could choose between US only version (128-bit encryption) and international version when I download Netscape. Of course I could just download the US version, but Korean government couldn't enforce banks to use 128-bit officially. (not to mention IE bundled with Korean Windows would not have supported it.) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_in_the_United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export_of_cryptography_in_the_U...
derleth 14y ago
> How do you enforce a ban on encryption? By classifying it as a munition and using those laws. Which don't apply to books like "Applied Cryptography" by Bruce Schneier, due to the First Amendment. Even if they have source code printed in their appendices. Oh, you mean effectively? Uh... I suppose we'll have to get back to you on that.
- stcredzero 14y ago
  > How do you enforce a ban on encryption? By classifying it as a munition... Oh, you mean effectively? Uh... Back in the day, someone printed up a T-shirt that had a 4-line Perl script that did RSA and so was a munition. (Later reduced to 3 lines.) There was a barcode that contained the bits for the script, which you could use to automatically read the program into a properly configured computer, so the T-Shirt was indeed a munition under those regulations.
ajross 14y ago
The ban wasn't on the algorithms, it was on products using them. You could write a book describing RC4 or Blowfish and ship it anywhere, but you couldn't ship a web browser that implemented it outside the US until 1996.