🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Dec12.192210.10839@netcom.com> strnlght@netcom.com (David Sternlight) writes:
   Derek Atkins says there are plans in the works to produce a "de novo"
   version of PGP using RSAREF, starting with the PGP interface specs.

   If that product is to be usable in the U.S., whoever does this is
   going to have to import IDEA legally, under the munitions act. Otherwise
   one would not be able to decrypt messages sent with the non-U.S. version,
   PGP 2.x.

I'm not a lawyer (though I play a politician on TV :-), but there's a
difference between crypto *software*, which may be covered by the
munitions export/import laws, and the mathematical *algorithms*,
which probably aren't - they can be published in the Federal Register (e.g. DES) 
or technical journals and imported and exported without restrictions.
So all we'd need to do would be implement IDEA in software in the US.
On the other hand, do the folks who own the patent for IDEA in Switzerland
also have patent protection here?
--
#				Pray for peace;      Bill
# Bill Stewart 908-949-0705 wcs@anchor.att.com AT&T Bell Labs 4M312 Holmdel NJ
# Nov 12 - Anniversary of Indonesian massacre in East Timor, 1991
# Indonesia first invaded in 1975, and about 1/3 of the people have been killed.