Wassenaar

[Werner Koch]

sen_ml at eccosys.com writes:

> (author of ip filter) posted this to the ssh mailing list.  does
> anyone have a url for what john gilmore wrote?


  http://jya.com

  and the select the crypto link.

Here is what I posted to RMS:

The German Ministry for Economy published today a statement
about the Waseenar aggrement:

   [....]
   Ganz von der Exportkontrolle ausgenommen sind Verfahren wie digitale
   Singnatur und Authentifizierung, außerdem einzelne Produktgruppen wie
   bestimmte Schnurlosetlefone oder Pay-TV Endgeräte. Unangetastet
   geblieben ist die Regelung über frei verfügbare Produkte (public
   domain).

   Einzelne Staaten, die ursprünglich eine Sonderbehandlung von "Key
   Recovery"-Produkten gefordert hatten, konnten sich nicht durchsetzen.
   Der Export von Verschlüsselungstechnologie ist demnach auch künftig
   ohne Schlüsselhinterlegung bei staatlichen Behörden möglich.
   
I try to translate it:

   Methods for digital signatures and authentication and some special
   product groups (e.g. wireless phones and pay-TV decoder) are 
   completely not subject to any export regulations.  The regulations
   for freely available products (public domain) will not be changed.

   Some countries who requested special treatment for "Key
   Recovery"-products could not accomplish this.  Export of 
   encryption technology is therefore also in future possible without
   the deposition of keys at government agencies.


They are also talking about products for the mass market and that
these may fall under some export regulations but they made also clear
that these regulation will probably be only a note to ministry and
that there is will be no need for a permission.

I think this is good news for GNU encryption software.


  Werner