DES_PC posted to mod.sources, but canceled

[John Gilmore]

I submitted a purported software implementation of DES in C to
mod.sources, and it was posted on the 14th of September in Volume 7,
Issue 27. However, a Canadian Usenetter noticed it and fired off a
message to Rich $alz, the mod.sources moderator, and me, informing us
that we were probably violating US export controls.

Apparently it is not legal in our free country to export a public domain
program that implements a published national standard protocol -- if the
protocol relates to cryptography.

Rich then submitted a cancel message, but since the article had reached
Canada, it had probably also reached Europe and other parts of the world.
Eventually the cancel will catch up with it (it hasn't yet, on Hoptoad)
but for a short time the DES program will exist on many systems.

The "References:" line of the article you are now reading, points to
the mod.sources article. If you use vnews or readnews, you should be
able to see if the mod.sources article is there on your system by using
the "p" (parent article) command. Rn users are out of luck as far as I
know, you just have to read through mod.sources and look.

We are looking into the legalities and it will probably be reposted,
either with a "usa" distribution if the government slimeball censors must
be appeased, or to the whole net if sanity sets in.

If anyone on net.crypt knows more about the export controls on cryptography,
please contact me. No flames please. I am trying to increase the
amount of useful PD software available to the human race. Non-amurrikans
are people too, despite what the US government would have you think.
--
John Gilmore {sun,ptsfa,lll-crg,ihnp4}!hoptoad!gnu jgil...@lll-crg.arpa
May the Source be with you!

[Simon Kenyon <simon@einode.UUCP>]

> Rich then submitted a cancel message, but since the article had reached
> Canada, it had probably also reached Europe and other parts of the world.

correct

> Eventually the cancel will catch up with it (it hasn't yet, on Hoptoad)

you jest

> but for a short time the DES program will exist on many systems.

you mean on your system you allow automatic execution of control messages?
anyway i'm afraid the cat is already out of the bag
what ronny doesn't know about won't hurt him :-)
--
Simon Kenyon <si...@einode.UUCP>
The NSC, Dublin, IRELAND
+353-1-716255

[Jim Reid]

The US ban on the "export" of DES algorithms is absurd. A competent programmer
with access to the official standard (is that secret?) could write a DES
program in the language of his/her choice easily. Also, there are many non-US
sites who have the UNIX DES code from the good old days of V6 and V7. (It was
even on the 4.2 distribution tapes three years ago!) Finally, Andrew Tanenbaum
includes a Pascal version of DES in his book "Computer Networks". Are the
offending pages now ripped out? OK, you could get sued for copyright, but
it would be preferable to going to jail for treason! :-) How many other books
or papers contain the DES algorithm too?

Jim

ARPA: jim%cs.stra...@ucl-cs.arpa, j...@cs.strath.ac.uk
UUCP: j...@strath-cs.uucp, ...!seismo!mcvax!ukc!strath-cs!jim
JANET: j...@uk.ac.strath.cs

"JANET domain ordering is swapped around so's there'd be some use for rev(1)!"

[David Wright]

In article <2...@stracs.cs.strath.ac.uk> j...@cs.strath.ac.uk (Jim Reid) writes:
>The US ban on the "export" of DES algorithms is absurd. A competent programmer

>with access to the official standard could write a DES program ...

For example, the London company "JPY Associates", who wrote a very efficient
version for the PDP-11 under RSX, and now offer a native mode VAX version too.

Of course it isn't actually "DES", because the DES standard says that the
algorithm MUST be implemented in hardware only.
It is merely completely compatible with the standard (:-)).

--
Regards,
David Wright STL, London Road, Harlow, Essex CM17 9NA, U.K.
d...@stl.stc.co.uk <or> ...seismo!mcvax!ukc!stl <or> PSI%234237100122::DWW