At 03:02 AM 7/31/96 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote:

Having a U.S. version, without any limits on crypto and without any software key escrow (GAK), and then having a "for export" version, with keylength limits and/or mandatory registration of keys with the U.S. National Security Agency....

Well, what this would do is to basically drive sales of the "NSA" version to near zero. Between customer distaste for an NSA version, I can imagine many foreign governments not being too pleased to see this product being used by its citizens.

For over a decade, the ham radio community has been familiar with the phenomenon of handheld, microprocessor-drive "rice radios" (because they're usually Japan-built) which contain an internal limitation keeping them from receiving or transmitting out of their band. These radios are built for the world market, and are "programmed" by installing (or not installing) various diodes on a PCB. Removing, adding, or shifting diodes is an easy trick, and restores full functionality to the device. What's to prevent a software writer such as Microsoft (or anyone else, for that matter) from writing two versions of a program (domestic and export), perhaps containing a difference as minor as a two-byte EQUate representing the maximum number of bits that are "allowed" in the key. Everything else is identical. Making a change would be as simple as bringing up a hex editor and changing those bytes. (okay, admittedly that won't seem simple for most people, but a simple single-purpose editor program would probably pop up for the purpose.) Jim Bell jimbell@pacifier.com