I thought the readers of cyperpunks might find the following of interest. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ..Christopher Allen Consensus Development Corporation.. ..<consensus@netcom.com> 4104-24th Street #419.. .. San Francisco, CA 94114-3615.. .. o415/647-6383 f415/647-6384.. ..Mosaic/World-Wide-Web Front Door: .. ..ftp://netcom7.netcom.com/pub/consensus/www/ConsensusFrontDoor.html .. Date: 15 Mar 1994 14:55:01 GMT From: mrr@scss3.cl.msu.edu (Mark Riordan) Subject: Exportable RIPEM/SIG Available Organization: Michigan State University Summary: Free Signature-only version of RIPEM Announcing the availability of RIPEM/SIG, an exportable signature-only version of RIPEM, a public-key encryption program. RIPEM/SIG is a version of RIPEM 1.2 with encryption and decryption taken out. RSA Data Security has obtained a US State Department Commodities Jurisdiction ruling determining that RIPEM/SIG is exportable from the USA. At this writing, RIPEM/SIG is undergoing a classification to determine what countries it may not be exported to. (Worst case is that RIPEM/SIG may not be exported to such countries as Libya, Iraq, and North Korea.) While this ruling certainly does not fully address the strong concerns of myself and many others regarding the USA's overly restrictive export laws, it does ease things a bit for individuals wishing to exchange authenticated messages across international borders. RSA Data Security has granted a free license to users worldwide of RIPEM/SIG to use the software for any purposes other than direct commercial services. (I.e., selling the software itself or selling a service directly based on the program's functions.) It is allowable to make use of the software at a commercial location or on commercial computer systems. Use for personal communication, or even corporate communications, is permitted. These rights will be clarified in a new RSAREF license and new RSA software, to be available in a few weeks. For a license to use RIPEM/SIG to deliver commercial services, contact RSA Data Security for terms. It is believed that RIPEM/SIG is the only US-exportable signature software in the world available for free to US users. (Non-US users are not bound by RSADSI's US patents, but would be bound by copyright laws.) RIPEM/SIG is built from RIPEM 1.2a sources; thus, RIPEM/SIG source code is not exportable. The executables are exportable. I have compiled RIPEM/SIG for several popular architectures and have placed the executables on ripem.msu.edu, available for anonymous FTP from /pub/crypt/ripem/ripemsig/binaries. Other USA and Canada citizens are welcome to obtain the RIPEM 1.2a source distribution and create and export executables for other platforms. I also wish to announce the availability of RIPEM 1.2a. There were no algorithic changes between 1.2 and 1.2a; simply code changes to create RIPEM/SIG and to accomodate some brain-dead C compilers. RIPEM is available via non-anonymous FTP from ripem.msu.edu. See the file GETTING_ACCESS to get an account. RIPEM/SIG is, as mentioned above, available from the same site via anonymous FTP. Mark Riordan