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Date: Sun, 3 Oct 1993 16:49:01 CDT From: Cu-Digest <uunet!CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU!tk0jut2%mvs.cso.niu.edu> Subject: Cu Digest, #5.77
- --- Date: Fri, 1 Oct 93 06:55:38 -0700 From: grady@NETCOM.COM(Grady Ward) Subject: File 1--Grady Ward DOES NOT Encourage Illegality Jerry Leichter's <leichter@LRW.COM> comments about me in CuD, Volume 5, Issue 76 are flatly wrong. I do not and never have encouraged people to copy or use PGP illegally whatever their jurisdiction. In this country they ought not to "make, use, or sell" RSA without a license from PK Partners of Sunnyvale, CA. Similarly, the IDEA cipher ought not to be used commercially without a specific commercial license from Ascom-Tech AG of Switzerland. If they are non North American nationals then they need to obtain a copy of PGP from one of several foreign sites such as: black.ox.ac.uk (129.67.1.165) ghost.dsi.unimi.it (149.132.2.1) nic.funet.fi (128.214.6.100) Depending, of course, on their local laws. I have been assured by two attorneys that source is NOT an infringing "device" and can be copied or studied as long as its distribution is not simply a ploy to evade patent law. The whole constitutional idea of a patent centers on the wide dissemination of the underlying ideas that can be reduced to practice by a "person of ordinary skill" in the field. Disseminating the ideas underlying a patent is explicitly a patriotic act in the United States. In any event individuals become moral creatures by actively making their own personal choices and not having the ideas that could lead to an informed choice restricted by the State. I support the widespread use of strong crypto in the world for two reasons: It assists physically separate individuals to freely exchange ideas in greater safety from State interference. And it preferentially helps less powerful people since the more powerful dominating group can simply use the raw force of its state apparatus to advance its program. It is an equalizer in the quest for coalition and social justice. Strong crypto creates communities, not conspiracies. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Sep 93 17:49:12 -0600 From: "L. Detweiler" <ld231782@LONGS.LANCE.COLOSTATE.EDU> Subject: File 2--Response to Jerry Leichter in re Moby Crypto Editor: I strongly object to comments by Jerry Leichter <leichter@LRW.COM> on the PGP subpoenas in CuD, Volume 5 : Issue 76. Mr. Leichter appears to be making contradictory points: even though the ITAR may be casting FUD and chilling people's actions based on `poorly drafted regulations whose coverage no one can determine, by threats and insinuations from government spokesmen that some action is illegal', he on the other hand admonishes G. Ward for his actions to date in challenging the law. "Ward is deliberately flaunting it. Stupid, dangerous idea. Being a revolutionary, putting yourself in direct opposition to the power of the state, isn't fun and games. People get hurt that way." Mr. Leichter does not appear to realize that the most egregious laws created tend only to be overturned by the most dramatic challenges. Our own American Revolution is a dramatic instance of this fact. I have praised G. Ward in email previously as a compelling cyberspatial hero for his actions in publicizing over Usenet the NSA and State Department molestations he has been subject to over the past weeks. Very dramatic constitutional issues are at stake. Another major reality lapse in Mr. Leichter's somewhat desultory argument (that appears to have the fundamental message of minimizing the significance of the Zimmermann-Ward affair) is the following. Citizens in a society do not live by the laws -- they live by the *effect* of those laws on their everyday life. Some laws are widely ignored, such as speed limits. Some are revered with the utmost respect, such as the rulings of the Supreme Court and the directives of the President. Even if no case had ever been brought to court on the ITAR, the fundamental issue is that the law has an extraordinary dampening force on certain aspects of current cyberspatial development and enterprise -- in particular, cryptographic technology intrinsic to a wide variety of transforming technologies such as digital cash and signatures -- all critical to future progress. An analogy might be this: even though our judicial system has evolved an elaborate protocol for granting search warrants, that system is meaningless if people voluntarily allow police to search their homes. We do *not* live in a world described by government laws, we live in one that interacts with them in sometimes unpredictable ways. Now, let me abandon these vague platitudes immediately for some cutting specifics relevant to this case. What is the effect on the ITAR on *domestic* cryptographic development? The ITAR supposedly only deals with import and export and in fact that is all the authority granted by its enabling law, the Arms Export Control Act, to cover. But the use of the ITAR in practice by government bureaucrats is apparently to stifle free speech and free press rights of domestic U.S. citizens. This situation is transparently clear from Grady Ward's wretched predicament and other noxious affairs that have escaped the focused attention of many. In particular, I would like to draw attention to an outstanding effort by D. Bernstein to demonstrate the sheer oppressive force of the ITAR as interpreted by the relevant U.S. agencies. In the anonymous FTP file ripem.msu.edu:/pub/crypt/docs/shuffle-export-hassles. is an extraordinary compilation of letters sent between D. Bernstein and the Bureau of Politico-Military affairs regarding the ITAR rules. Mr. Bernstein sought permission to *post* a simple message to the Usenet group sci.crypt describing a cryptographic technique. The sheer obstruction he encountered is absolutely appalling. It approaches the grotesque torture of a totalitarian society in suppressing information. He required the intervention of his California state representative merely to get simple mail responses from the asphyxiating bureaucracy! Moreover, the exchange demonstrates very clearly that the government *applies* the ITAR not as a law regarding import and export of material (as the *law* constrains it) but *in practice* as an instrument to stifle otherwise lawful 1st Amendment scientific publication. From a letter of 14 July 1993 to A. A. Henderson:
Please note that the State Department is engaging in unconstitutional censorship of material which I privately developed and which I wish to publish. What you are witnessing is a battle over the First Amendment. I believe that the [Office of Defense Trade Controls, Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs] is acting in violation of the Bill of Rights. [They] failed to answer this question: "Does ITAR exert prior restraint on otherwise lawful publication"?
In these paragraphs I seek to emphasize that the debate goes far deeper than the mere obnoxious classification of widespread, public-domain cryptgraphic algorithms and techniques as `munitions'. The debate surrounding the ITAR cuts to the core of many democratic issues. The ITAR is updated with alarming frequency and changed with disturbing ease. Its revision seems to occur in complete defiance of a regular and open legislative process. Even top *experts* on the law cannot keep up with all the modifications. As a frightening example of this, take the case of U.S. vs. Martinez, where Elizabeth Martinez and her fiance were convicted of violating the Arms Export Control Act by exporting `cryptographic hardware' -- a satellite TV video descrambling device, `Videocipher II'. Apparently, by some magic bureaucratic whim, it is now *legal* to export such equipment under the ITAR! I doubt Mrs. Martinez is consoled by this news, after being consumed and rebuffed even on appeal. I consider the ITAR one of the most totalitarian documents our government has ever produced. G. Ward and P. Zimmerman are modern cyberspatial heroes for their bold, direct challenges of it. In classifying `disclosure of information to foreign nationals' as *export* we find the same institutional paranoia and cyberspatial ignorance seen in the Cold-War era Soviet Union in e.g. restricting Xerox machines. The irony is that in both cases, the paranoia is entirely justified, even necessary, within the context of preserving the illegitimate status quo. This oppression forms the basic foundation of support for the two most totalitarian systems of the 20th century -- one defunct, the other with the initials N.S.A. ------------------------------ Paul Ferguson | privacy \'pri-va-see\ n, pl, -cies; Mindbank Consulting Group | 1: the quality or state of being apart Fairfax, Virginia USA | from others 2: secrecy fergp@sytex.com | ferguson@icp.net | Privacy -- Use it or lose it.