Re: re:bag of worms...

[Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>]

brian white writes ("re:bag of worms... "):
> Probably not since crypt isn't so much an encryption routine as it is
> a one-way hash function.  Whether that is restricted, I don't know.
> Any legal-eagles out there?

There are no practical problems with the export of one-way-hash
functions (MD5 is such an animal, for example, and there are no
problems with exporting that).

What the actual law says here is largely irrelevant - what matters is
whether you (the distributor, actually) is going to get jumped on.
Distributing even encryption-ready software gets you jumped on, but
just one-way-hash functions (which supposedly provide only
integrity[1] rather than confidentiality) are fine.

[1] Of course, any idiot can construct a good block cipher from a good
one way hash function, but the other idiots in the government have not
noticed this or are pretending not to have noticed it.

*sigh*
Ian.