Subject: Re: US crypto laws and NetBSD
To: None <W.Scheffbuch@ieee.org>
From: Julian Assange <email@example.com>
Date: 03/04/2000 23:04:16
> > As long as the respository is mirrored there is nothing to stop
> > NetBSD moving the repository at the point restrictions are
> > imposed?
> This is subject to interpretation. To be on the safe side, the
> master repository should be outside of any signatory state. The
> risks for mirror sites in signatory states should then be smaller.
> I still have no idea about the legal status of a mirror in France.
This is a dead issue. Albright shoe-horned other wassenar nations into
stricter interpretations. Most of those nations then refused to ratify
the agreement into local law. Like most international agreements
signed by special interest bureaucrats abroad, upon return to Camelot,
locals simply picked the parts they liked, plus whatever was minimally
required to appease the US.
Now that the US has effectively said "tricked you! we'll take the
money!", to those nations foolish enough to believe its words of
international doom and terrorism, the US's ability to keep them even
marginally supined, prone if not wet, is non-existent.
As for France, there is no political will left. Rampant crypto
nationalism, and a 180 degree change in policy following revelations
of US spying means France is currently one of the strongest pro-crypto
states around. The French/DGSE in typical French-think decided that
despite the fact that they'd love to spy evermore on their own
population, they'd quite happily engage in ritual self-sacrifice to
prevent the US doing it.