News: Sony/Philips has trouble exporting TV's

[Martin Minow]

>    Washington - New Internet-television systems from Sony Corp. and
>    Philips Electronics Co. are technically munitions under U.S. export
>    controls and cannot be shipped to the companies' worldwide sales
>    networks, it was disclosed last week.
>
>    Sony officials said the company's TV set-top box designed by WebTV of
>    Palo Alto, Calif., includes a state-of-the-art 128-bit code encryption
>    system for electronic commerce. This far exceeds the 40-bit encryption
>    code permissible for export under the U.S. Munitions Control List.
>

At the Bernstein case oral arguments last September, I distinctly
remember the government lawyer stating that the United States does
not restrict "financial cryptography." Perhaps he should have
qualified his argument somewhat.

This statement bothered me, as I cannot understand how an encryption
algorithm can "know" that it is encrypting a financial transaction,
rather than some non-financial document that would be export-restricted.

Martin Minow
minow at apple.com