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                Date: 2000-01-13
                 
                 
                US-Krypto: Liberalisierung und Kritik
                
                 
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      ACLU, EFF und EPIC sagen, was da liberalisiert wurde ist  
längst noch nicht genug. 
 
Related stories: 
 
http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/te/5683/1.html
                   
 
http://futurezone.orf.at/futurezone.orf?read=detail&id=14979
                   
 
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Civil Liberties Groups Say New Encryption Export  
Regulations Still Have Serious Constitutional Deficiencies 
 
Washington, DC -- Leading Internet civil liberties groups said  
today that new encryption export regulations released by the  
U.S. Commerce Department fall short of the Clinton  
Administration's promise to deregulate the privacy-enhancing  
technology.  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU),  
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Electronic Privacy  
Information Center (EPIC) will continue to press their  
Constitutional cases.  These court cases seek to eliminate  
U.S. government regulations that make Internet encryption  
software and technology more cumbersome to publish or  
send than the same items when published in other media. 
 
While the Administration has taken a step in the right  
direction with its latest revisions, the fundamental  
constitutional defects of the encryption export regime have  
not been remedied.  Specifically: 
 
- The new regulations, like the old ones, impose special  
requirements on Internet speech, contrary to the Supreme  
Court's 1997 ruling in Reno v. ACLU.  The regulations require  
that the government be notified of any electronic "export" of  
publicly available encryption source code, and prohibit  
electronic "export" to certain countries.  Yet people may  
freely send the same information anywhere on paper. 
 
- The export regulations are still a completely discretionary  
licensing scheme.  They continue to require licenses for a  
large amount of communication protected by the First  
Amendment, including transmitting source code that is not  
"publicly available," source code that is "restricted," source  
code forming an "open cryptographic interface," and various  
forms of object code. 
 
- While the new regulations appear to permit free posting of  
encryption source code to Internet discussion lists, such  
posting may be illegal if the poster has 'reason to know' that  
it will be read by a person in one of the seven regulated  
countries (such as Cuba). 
 
- The new regulations still ban providing information on how to  
create or use some encryption technology as prohibited  
"technical assistance." Software publishers can be fined or  
imprisoned for helping people to use their code.  These same  
limitations do not apply to non-encryption source code. 
 
The U.S. export control laws on encryption have been the  
source of much legal wrangling for the past several years.   
Encryption is a method for scrambling data in order to make  
electronic communications more secure. 
 
As more computer users employ encryption to protect the  
privacy of their e-messages and documents, the U.S.  
government has until now demanded guaranteed easy  
access to the content of Internet communications. 
 
In a well-publicized court case, mathematician Daniel J.   
Bernstein has challenged the export control laws on  
encryption on First Amendment grounds. Professor Bernstein  
claims that his right to publish his own encryption software  
and share his research results with others over the Internet is  
being unconstitutionally restricted by the government's  
controls.  Bernstein won his case at the trial level, and won  
an appeal in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  The  
government asked that the appeal be reconsidered in light of  
the new regulations, and a larger "en banc" panel of Ninth  
Circuit judges will reconsider the case this spring. 
 
A similar case challenging the constitutionality of the export  
rules was brought by the ACLU of Ohio on behalf of Ohio law  
professor Peter Junger, who wished to publish an electronic  
version of an encryption program he wrote.  The case is  
pending in the Sixth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals. 
 
Barry Steinhardt, Associate Director for the ACLU, said, "The  
rules are a step forward, but they are still too complex and  
leave too many questions unanswered.  Now that the  
Administration has tacitly admitted that it can't and shouldn't  
control the use of encryption, it should have announced a  
simple deregulation, rather than regulatory maze." 
 
"These First Amendment problems need to be fixed before  
we can support the government here," commented EFF  
attorney Shari Steele. "The government has made some  
concessions, but they are not enough to make the  
regulations constitutional.  EFF will continue to support  
Professor Bernstein as he presses on with his litigation." 
 
According to EPIC General Counsel David Sobel, "The  
revised rules will make it easier for commercial firms to  
export and sell encryption products.  While that is a positive  
development, the government will still retain significant  
control over this technology, to the detriment of efforts to  
create a truly secure Internet.  It's time to remove the  
bureaucratic requirements and permit the free exchange of  
encryption" 
 
The American Civil Liberties Union (http://www.aclu.org) is  
the nation's largest and oldest civil liberties organization. In  
its defense of the principles of the Bill of Rights, it advocates  
for both free speech and privacy rights. 
 
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (http://www.eff.org) is a  
leading global nonprofit organization linking technical  
architectures with legal frameworks to support the rights of  
individuals in an open society. Founded in 1990, EFF actively  
encourages and challenges industry and government to  
support free expression, privacy, and openness in the  
information society. EFF maintains one of the most-linked-to  
Web sites in the world. 
 
The Electronic Privacy Information Center  
(http://www.epic.org) is a non-profit research and advocacy  
organization based in Washington, DC. It was established in  
1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties  
issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and  
constitutional values in emerging communications media. 
 
A copy of the latest encryption regulations can be found at: 
 
	 
http://www.epic.org/crypto/export_controls/regs_1_00.html
                   
 
For more information about the Bernstein case, check out 
 
	http://www.eff.org/bernstein/
                   
 
Press Contacts: 
 
David Sobel, General Counsel, EPIC sobel@epic.org +1 202  
544 9240 
 
Barry Steinhardt, Associate Director, ACLU barrys@aclu.org  
+1 212 549 2508 
 
Cindy Cohn, Prof. Bernstein's attorney  
cindy@mcglashan.com +1 650 341 2585 
 
Shari Steele, Dir. of Legal Services, EFF ssteele@eff.org +1  
301 283 2773 
 
 
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edited by Harkank 
published on: 2000-01-13 
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