DTI White Paper on Export Control

[David Swarbrick]

In message <199807072315.JAA09729@era.qualcomm.com>, Greg Rose
<ggr@qualcomm.com> writes
>
>>Perhaps we should all make a declaration that we are posting from within
>>the UK, and promise to unsubscribe if we travel abroad, just to keep the
>>DTI happy.
>
>And what made you think only Britons subscribe to this list?

Does this not demonstrate the idiocy of the DTI position. We become
criminals for discussing ideas and techniques of encryption without
first being sure that no 'dark foreigner' is listening. 

The proposal would be laughable if it wasn't terrifying.

At what point would my reply to you if I had quoted what you said
without first obtaining a DTI licence become a criminal offence?

The suggestions you make might be about how I make my crypto more
effective, how I structure it better. It is clear (well it would be if I
understood it), and if I were designing a crypto system, the information
would be useful, and I would incorporate it in my own schemes. In this
fairy-tale land of cryptography, it seems to me that just as important
as any source code is the accrued body of logical and practical
understanding of how crypto-systems are to be put together and managed.

Is Nigel H serious enough abut the DTI Paper to tell us either

a) what we can and cannot discuss - where will the line fall and/or
b) what responsibilities do list owners and list members have to ensure
that johnny-foreigner does not get hold of any discussion which strays
near that line.

I am beginning to think that the whte paper may in fact be the saving of
us all, as the reductio ad absurdum of the policy of retaining
cryptographic software in th ecategory of restricted exports. Have th
epoliticians thought through the possible outcry?

-- 
David Swarbrick, Solicitor. Brighouse, West Yorkshire.
Tel: +44(0)1484 722531 Fax: +44(0)484 716617 Pager 04325 349742
e-mail david@swarb.demon.co.uk
URL http://www.swarb.co.uk/swarbrick/ - home of the law-index to 8100+ cases
'damn fine webbery"