New restrictions on distributing the SFL

Anonymous anonymous at netassist.se
Tue May 5 22:45:26 PDT 1998


>Date: Tue, 05 May 1998 17:24:25 -0700
>To: imc-sfl at imc.org
>From: Paul Hoffman / IMC <phoffman at imc.org>
>Subject: New restrictions on distributing the SFL

I'm sorry to announce that the source code for the SFL has been removed
from the official site. It has been moved to a new site,
<http://www.armadillo.huntsville.al.us/software/smime/> that appears to be
export-controlled. You need a password to get the software from that site,
and the passwords are handed out by the US Department of Defense.

I'm personally embarssed that the government of my country enforces such
silly laws. I understand that many other countries have similar laws, but
that doesn't make me feel any better. I had hoped that the SFL would be the
beginning of sensibility on the part of the US government with respect to
cryptography distribution; I still have that hope for the future.

There are many people on this mailing list who are outside the US, and this
change in distribution may prevent you from getting the SFL. If other Web
sites appear that contain unofficial versions of the SFL and do not
restrict who can download from them, I will be happy to list those on the
IMC SFL page at <http://www.imc.org/imc-sfl/>. I would also like to list
links to cryptography packages that work with the SFL at our site.

--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium









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