Arsen Ray Arachelian says:
And they can kiss my fat ass for all I care. As long as crypto is legal there ain't a thing they can use that list for except to deny you jobs.
Section #120.9 of the ITAR defines "Defense Service" as: (1) The furnishing of assistance (including training) to foreign persons, whether in the United States or abroad in the design, development, engineering, manufacture, production, assembly, testing, repair, maintenance, modification, operation, demilitarization, destruction, processing, or use of defense articles; or (2) The furnishing to foreign persons of any technical data controlled under this subchapter (see #120.10), whether in the United States or abroad. Section #120.17 defines "Export" as: [paragraphs 1 - 4 skipped] (5) Performing a defense service on behalf of, or for the benefit of, a foreign person, whether in the United States or abroad; or [paragraph 6 skipped] I expect that most on this list know that cryptographic software and systems with the capability of maintaining secrecy or confidentiality of information (excluding systems using cryptography for authentication purposes only) are considered export controlled defense articles. (See section #121.1, Category XIII) Posting instructions on how to use and/or build cryptographic software to a mailing list containing foreign persons could be interpreted by some as a violation the ITAR regulations. However, I think they would have to stretch the point quite a bit, considering the fact that it is legal to export cryptography books and discuss cryptography with foreign nationals in an academic setting. Also, the posted instructions could be considered "information in the public domain" (section #120.11), which is *not* subject to the ITAR regulations. My hypothesis: The TLAs could shut down the cypherpunks mailing list (as it now exists) by dragging all the U.S. list members into court. The TLAs would probably lose the case, but they would still do a lot of damage to the lives of the U.S. list members. Jim_Miller@suite.com