IP: A legal way to export crypto code: in English?

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 15:07:02 -0400 (EDT)
From: "Dr. Alan Sherman" <sherman@cs.umbc.edu>


Subject: A legal way to export crypto code: in English


"Judge Gwin of the Federal District Court of the Northern District of Ohio
has recently held that software is not protected by the First Amendment
because it is a ``functional device'' like a telephone circuit." as said by
Peter Junger, a lawyer suing for the fight to export crypto as
"free-speech".


So, Leevi Marttila has written a program that translates C to English and
back.  http://personal.sip.fi/~lm/c2txt2c/ is the location of the program. 
Now, the question is, is this translation free speech?  You can read
blowfish at http://personal.sip.fi/~lm/c2txt2c/blowfish.txt and see that it
quite readable as a story, even funny if you remember that it came from C
code.  So, are the adventures of William, Edward, Richard, Michael, &
Charles free speech?  If so, you can export it?


Or, are the adventures themselves an encrypted message and the translator a
piece of crypto software?


Jay Ball jay@invengen.com


---------------------------------+-------------------------------------
| Jeremy Epstein                 |  E-mail: jepstein@tis.com          |
| TIS Labs at Network Associates |  Voice:  +1 (703) 356-2225 Ext 106 |
| Northern Virginia Office       |  Fax:    +1 (703) 821-8426         |
---------------------------------+-------------------------------------