Well. Now that the government itself is taking up the charge, I'm sure we can expect a speedy resolution. Yeah, right. *** Scrambled software gets an OK -- Exports: Foreign encoding unfair to U.S. firms, Commerce Department says. Bloomberg Business News WASHINGTON -- The Commerce Department will recommend easing export controls on encryption software after a study by the department and the National Security Agency found the restrictions are hurting U.S. firms, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown said. Such a move may pit Brown's department against U.S. defense and spy agencies, however, setting the stage for a White House battle over one of the last computer technologies still covered by export controls. ``I'm interested in promoting American exports,'' Brown said. ``If your foreign competitors are exporting products with encryption capability and you are not, that puts you at a tremendous competitive disadvantage,'' he said. Encryption software turns information, such as files and credit card numbers, into indecipherable material that can be sent across networks without fear of tampering to the recipient, who can then unscramble it. Under current U.S. law, encryption technology that exceeds certain technical thresholds is considered a ``munition.'' Those who would export such technology need explicit permission from the government. The United States justifies the export restrictions by saying law-enforcement agencies would be hamstrung in their efforts to stop terrorists, spies and criminals without them. The computer industry counters that encryption software is available from other countries, and the restrictions simply rob U.S. companies of business. The Computer Systems Policy Project, a joint effort of 13 top technology companies released its own study showing that U.S. companies will lose as much as 30 percent of the $200 billion in U.S. computer system sales expected in 2000 because of federal laws limiting exports of encryption products. Brown said his department will prepare recommendations for easing those controls that should be forwarded to the president ``within a few months.'' It's unclear if the NSA endorsed the Commerce Department's conclusions in the report it jointly prepared. Representatives of the NSA were unavailable for comment. Brown's assertion comes a day after federal prosecutors dropped a three-year investigation of Boulder, Colo., software designer Philip Zimmermann, whose encryption program called Pretty Good Privacy was posted on the Internet, the worldwide computer network. Published 1/13/96 in the San Jose Mercury News. Reprinted digitally here without permission, and probably illegally. Corey Bridges Security Documentation Netscape Communications Corporation home.netscape.com/people/corey 415-528-2978