IETF Logo Mail Archive

Export Restrictions (was Re: Issues with S/MIME Message Specification)

"C. Harald Koch" <chk@pobox.com> Wed, 19 May 1999 17:02 UTC

Received: from mail.proper.com (mail.proper.com [206.86.127.224]) by ietf.org (8.9.1a/8.9.1a) with ESMTP id NAA22926 for <smime-archive@odin.ietf.org>; Wed, 19 May 1999 13:02:24 -0400 (EDT)
Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by mail.proper.com (8.8.8/8.8.5) id IAA23236 for ietf-smime-bks; Wed, 19 May 1999 08:43:36 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from esmerelda.ve3tla.ampr.org (root@esmerelda.ve3tla.ampr.org [209.47.237.98]) by mail.proper.com (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id IAA23232 for <ietf-smime@imc.org>; Wed, 19 May 1999 08:43:34 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from penelope.ve3tla.ampr.org (24.64.156.6.on.wave.home.com [24.64.156.6]) by esmerelda.ve3tla.ampr.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id LAA01866; Wed, 19 May 1999 11:43:37 -0400
Received: from penelope.ve3tla.ampr.org (chk@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by penelope.ve3tla.ampr.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id LAA09357; Wed, 19 May 1999 11:43:33 -0400
Message-Id: <199905191543.LAA09357@penelope.ve3tla.ampr.org>
To: bartley.o'malley@citicorp.com
cc: ietf-smime@imc.org
Subject: Export Restrictions (was Re: Issues with S/MIME Message Specification)
References: <199905191326.JAA21761@egate3.citicorp.com>
In-reply-to: Your message of "Wed, 19 May 1999 14:27:03 +0100". <199905191326.JAA21761@egate3.citicorp.com>
From: "C. Harald Koch" <chk@pobox.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-ID: <9352.927128612.1@penelope.ve3tla.ampr.org>
Date: Wed, 19 May 1999 11:43:32 -0400
Sender: owner-ietf-smime@imc.org
Precedence: bulk
List-Archive: <http://www.imc.org/ietf-smime/mail-archive/>
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:ietf-smime-request@imc.org?body=unsubscribe>

In message <199905191326.JAA21761@egate3.citicorp.com>, bartley.o'malley@citicorp.com writes:
> Creating a world-wide standard which significant 
> portions of the world are unable to comply with is pointless. 

I can't believe we're having this discussion *again* in the Security Area.
Regardless:

I strongly dispute your claim of "significant portions of the world".
Countries with import or use restrictions on cryptography are rare; even
France has backed down on that one.

Whether you like it or not, American companies and their government's export
restrictions are irrelevant. There are numerous examples of non-US
organisations picking up the slack, and their are numerous examples of
American companies getting around the restrictions. Two examples would be
RSA's new office in Australia, and the Fortify program for Netscape
Communicator.

IETF standards will outlive government restrictions on cryptography, and
should not short-sightedly cater to them. Last time I checked, this was also
the opinion of the IESG.

-- 
C. Harald Koch     <chk@pobox.com>

"It takes a child to raze a village."
		-Michael T. Fry

v2.39.1 | Report a Bug | By Email | System Status