At 9:41 PM 8/21/95, Adam Shostack wrote:

Strong cryptography is needed for a secure information infrastructure. If American companies aren't allowed to build secure infrastrucure, then parts of the infrastrucure will move overseas, as insurance, liability, and deployment costs rise for a badly secured network.

This issue will not cause the USA to become a third world nation, but it will contribute to large institutions moving their data processing out. Tim, you've talked a lot about how companies will move data centers out of the US to avoid 'expensive' laws; do you see the ITARs as being in a different catagory, than say, the laws on reporting a bankruptcy?

Sure, they will move some parts of their operations to other jurisdictions. They already are, for various reasons. Most large U.S. companies are of course "multinationals." I didn't cite examples, and won't now. (But you can imagine a few of the many successful U.S. companies: Sun, Intel, Microsoft, SGI, Qualcomm, Altera, Merck, and on and on.) I am not saying that things are as they should be. And I am not a U.S. chauvinist. I really don't care which countries do well, so long as my investments continue to do well. My point was that hyperbole about the U.S. being on the verge of becoming a Third World nation is wrong. As Sternlight might put it, "arrant nonsense." --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net (Got net?) | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-728-0152 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Corralitos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."