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From: karn@petrus.UUCP (Phil R. Karn)
Newsgroups: sci.crypt,net.sources.d,misc.legal
Subject: Re: There are basically no export controls on public domain information.
Message-ID: 
Date: Mon, 20-Oct-86 17:20:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: petrus.362
Posted: Mon Oct 20 17:20:03 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 21-Oct-86 07:10:47 EDT
References:   
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Inc
Lines: 24
Xref: watmath sci.crypt:11 net.sources.d:589 misc.legal:49

Just HOW is the government going to enforce export controls on machine
readable information?

Suppose I hop on a flight to London carrying a floppy disk. On this disk is
the source to a DES program (substitute your favorite public-domain but
"controlled" information here). However, reading it yields gibberish because
I've encrypted it with a one-time-pad. The key disk is back home in a safe
place (encrypted with a strong conventional cipher so the Feds can't read it
should they raid my place). I won't take it across until the one I'm
currently carrying makes it over safely.

In such a situation, is it up to me to prove that the disk I'm carrying
DOESN'T carry "controlled" information?  Considering that lots of data must
cross the Atlantic in many forms I can't imagine that Customs could demand
to know the contents of every disk, tape or telephone call, for that matter.

I would think that our government would take a lesson from the Communist
countries and realize that "controlling" the flow of public information is
impossible outside of a police state.  The widespread ownership of personal
computers by an informed public can represent a powerful safeguard against
arbitrary government interference with personal communications; that's why
the Soviet Union is scared to death of them.

Phil