DTI White Paper on Export Control

[Peter Gutmann]

>Of course the sorrow of it all is that no-one who really wants to build bombs
>or cook up Sarin in their back room will care in the least about all this. In
>the unlikely event of any of this getting to be law it will be the Dangerous
>Dogs Act of the Internet (GAK is our Red Flag Act).  Bad law makes it harder
>to prevent real abuse.
 
This point was demonstrated by a temporary export permit I recently got from 
our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which entailed me promising not to 
distribute the crypto when I was outside NZ.  Making the (very questionable) 
assumption that any bogeymen who wanted crypto wouldn't just obtain it 
locally, and further that if they did get it from NZ they wouldn't just ship 
it out without telling anyone, what this permit does is rely on the honesty of 
the criminals to not distribute the stuff after they've exported it.  I showed 
it to a (non-crypto-aware) lawyer and even he couldn't see why anyone would 
bother with this charade - it's a bit like a bank leaving the vault doors wide 
open and putting up a sign telling criminals they're welcome to come in and 
have a look, but please don't take anything.
 
Peter.