June 1 1991 is the date that both the MobyCrypt and PRZ subpoenas reach to. What is the significance? the early indication: this is the date of the 'official' release of PGP 1.0. C'punks: upon further reflection this dual assault seems to be ostensibly PKP motivated/driven. It is possible the prior NSA harassment of Moby Crypto was just a shocking coincidence. As reported on this list by D. Barnes <cman@io.com>, NSA had been prodding Austin Code Works (Maria Nekam) over DES export many months prior to this date. Does ACW currently deal with cryptographic software? how is it NSA was bugging them *months* ago? did Grady Ward indicate that long ago publicly (Usenet) his intent to use them as a publisher? This reminds me of stories of censorship of Yardley from Kahn (The Codebreakers) and censorship of Kahn reported by Bamford (Puzzle Palace) -- somehow, the NSA just *knows* when publishers are coming out with information related to cryptography or the NSA (I wonder how? <wink, wink>). We need more information: - how long has the NSA been harassing Austin Code Works? - does Austin Code works currently deal with cryptographic code? - or is this all entirely due to Grady Ward's Moby Crypto project? - was NSA complaining about (1) DES or (2) something else? export? - how did NSA find out that Austin Code Works was involved with Moby Crypto? On the other hand, the evidence that this is primarily PKP motivated seems to be in the primarily *PGP* and *RSA* oriented aspect of the subpoena queries. My current pet theory is that PKP has seen Grady Ward talking about his cryptographic recipe book on newsgroups (Bidzos has been known to track and respond on sci.crypt) and lumped him in an accusation & complaint, filed with the customs office, that ITAR laws on cryptographic export of cryptographic algorithms have been violated -- hence the investigation by a customs agency, the PGP 1.0 release date, the Viacrypt timing, etc. Maybe PKP got the impression that G. Ward was including RSA Source code -- has he said so on Usenet? -- this would be very inflammatory for them. RSA has virtually *no* international protection, all the patents only apply in the U.S. Finally, there is some other peripheral evidence regarding PRZ in this line I'm not really at liberty to state. that's the current 'conventional wisdom', anyway, subject to nanosecond fluctuation. Point: I think this new episode will without any doubt resolve whose side PKP is on. They've successfully remained in the shadows, like the NSA, until now, but like the NSA is discovering, continuing this will be impossible... Another point: remember the amazing scrutiny given to the E911 document, its *exact* and *precise* path of geneological distribution and leaking in the court proceedings and subsequent literature (e.g. B. Sterling, Hacker Crackdown)? I suspect, very soon, the same laserlike magnifying-glass pinpoint attention is going to be focused on exactly *who* first made PGP available *internationally* outside the U.S. -- anyone who can come forward with information on this (it all appears to have transpired in 1991) will be momentously affected. I don't know if this can be traced as effectively, however. The tracks are bit cool, and some people may not want to exactly *announce* this information.