Re:White House weighs encryption crackdown
by balabaster on Friday June 28, 2019 @12:11PM
(#20305819)
If my memory serves correctly, it was protected right up until Phil Zimmerman circumvented them by writing a book containing the source code for PGP and winning the case based upon the argument that the book was protected by his constitutional right to freedom of speech(?)
Unfortunately, you can't put the cat back in the bag. It's no good putting export restrictions on encryption when the tightest encryption we have at present is already available all round the world.
Re:White House weighs encryption crackdown
by codedokode on Friday June 28, 2019 @02:58PM
(#20307727)
The law had different purpose, to prevent other countries from obtaining good encryption algorithms. That law didn't forbid developing encryption software abroad and downloading it.
Trump certainly can't block Americans from selling cryptographic algorithims (or anything which implements those algorithms) if the consumer is also american.
But preventing the communication of those algorithms to foreign nationals is something that was done for several decades.
I think its a terrible thing for him to try to do, but he would have some legal grounds to stand on, provided the restrictions are related to foreign nationals only.