Mike McNally writes: : Uhh, I'd like a second opinion please doc. Are you suggesting that : whenever anybody with cryptographic expertise (like, maybe, anybody on : this mailing list) leaves the country we're in violation of munitions : export laws? No, but only because there is an express exception in the ITAR: Section 120.17 of the ITAR provides: _Export_ means: (1) Sending or taking a defense article out of the United States in any manner, except by mere travel outside the United States by a person whose personal knowledge includes technical data; . . . . : Is somebody who knows how to build a rocket in the same boat? Yes. But in one way the case may be worse for you cryptographers if you actually carry source code--or machine code--around inside your head. For in the _Karn_ case the government has argued that source and machine code are _not_ technical data, but are defense articles. So, unless you first erase that portion of your memory that contains the C code for implementing the RSA algorithm, you commit a felony--a million dollar fine and ten years in jail max--if you step outside the United States without first obtaining a license from the Office of Defense Trade Controls. -- Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland, OH Internet: junger@pdj2-ra.f-remote.cwru.edu junger@samsara.law.cwru.edu