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From: blm@6sceng.UUCP (Brian Matthews)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: Why no encryption in Compact Pro int'l?
Message-ID: <617@6sceng.UUCP>
Date: 13 Feb 91 19:48:20 GMT
References: <1220@duteca.UUCP>
Organization: Six Sigma CASE, Inc.
Lines: 27

In article <1220@duteca.UUCP> thomas@duteca.et.tudelft.nl (Thomas Okken) writes:
|In the release notes I read that the password encryption feature has been
|disabled in the international version, and this brought back a memory of a
|friend recently telling me that this was also the case in PC-land with PKZIP.
|All of this seems due to some (new?) U.S. export law.

It's not new, but it is a US export law.  Certain types of sensitive
technology can't be exported.  DES encryption is considered one such
sensitive technology.

|(It is not particularly hard to get someone in the
|U.S. to send the U.S. version of the aforementioned programs to Europe or
|elsewhere, especially in net-land!)

You know this, and I know this, but there're evidently some bureaucrats
somewhere in Washington (D.C., we don't want them :-)) that think they're
keeping the world safe for democracy by restricting something that's
been written up in journals and magazines that any decent sized library
will have.

Note that I don't blame Bill for disabling the encryption.  Although
the export restriction is silly, it does exist, and anyone who flaunts
could be in for some trouble.

And as you note, it's not that tough to get the US version.
-- 
Brian L. Matthews	blm@6sceng.UUCP