[MUD-Dev] Re: Modular MUD

[quzah]

From: Adam J. Thornton <adam at phoenix.Princeton.EDU>


>On Mon, Aug 31, 1998 at 07:52:28AM -0700, Caliban Tiresias Darklock wrote:
>> DES is exportable? For some reason (and I may have made this up) I thought
>> the 64 bits of DES were where they came up with the 56-bit limitation,
>> specifically so DES would be illegal to export... am I crazy, stupid, or
both?
>
>DES is essentially 56-bit, since the last 8 are computed from the first 56.
>I think you still do need a license but if you can prove that DES is all
>you use it's readily granted.  Or at least more readily granted than if you
>use anything else.  But for a hobby project this is still going to be
>hellishly expensive.  I misremembered its exportability.


[snip]

>Or, better still: find someone outside the States (and not in France, North
>Korea, Iraq, Libya, or China) to write your crypto code, as a plug-in DLL.
>Yeah, it complicates the downloading a lot, but it's better than a
>mandatory 31-41 month federal prison sentence.
>Adam

What's the big deal with encryption not being able to be exported? Does
the government think noone outside the US is smart enought to think up
some good encryption on their own?
-Q-