Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
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From: hp@vmars.tuwien.ac.at (Peter Holzer)
Subject: Re: password encoding
Message-ID: <1991Jun7.145219.19391@email.tuwien.ac.at>
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Organization: Technical University Vienna, Dept. for Realtime Systems, AUSTRIA
References: <1991Jun5.183525.3907@nntp-server.caltech.edu> <1991Jun6.113438.7450@email.tuwien.ac.at> <~F5_}^_@warwick.ac.uk>
Date: Fri, 7 Jun 1991 14:52:19 GMT
Lines: 34

phupp@warwick.ac.uk (S Millington) writes:

>In article <1991Jun6.113438.7450@email.tuwien.ac.at> hp@vmars.tuwien.ac.at (Peter Holzer) writes:
>>
>>Andy writes crypt in the Netherlands, sends it to PH in the US and they
>>copy it there, the Minix disks may not be exported anymore:-(

>     You've got to be joking. If crypt is written in the Netherlands, or
>any other place outside of the US then that is where it's copyright will be
>registered, unless P-H grab it and keep it in the US. Assuming the
>copyright is registered outside of the US, if P-H then use the code in a MINIX
>release and export the discs to Europe all they are doing is distributing a
>European copyrighted program in Europe. Surely a US court can't prevent
>them doing that. Then again the US legal system appears to get even more
>stupid than usual when DES is mentioned.

Unfortunately, law has nothing to do with logic. Especially if the law
has been made by some military dudes who obviously have no idea of
cryptography but a big red rubber stamp marked `top secret', which they
want to apply everywhere. I don't know the legal situation (I am neither
American nor a lawyer), but I think making crypt (c) A.S.Tanenbaum,
Netherlands, instead of (c) Prentice Hall, US would not help as long as
the disks/book are produced in the US. The American border seems to be
an event horizon for DES :-)

BTW, I did not make this up. AST had to take the DES source code out of
one of his books (although the textual description could remain) a few
years ago to be able to sell it outside the US.

--
|    _  | Peter J. Holzer                       | Think of it   |
| |_|_) | Technical University Vienna           | as evolution  |
| | |   | Dept. for Real-Time Systems           | in action!    |
| __/   | hp@vmars.tuwien.ac.at                 |     Tony Rand |
