> They can pass a law that makes future actions illegal, of course. So,
> they can change the _future_ status of OpenSSL, once it has been
> "infected".
>
But how does that affect anyone?
five years ago it was illegal to export OpenSSL after it was imported
into the U.S. I completely agree that the government can decide
tomorrow that it is illegal to export OpenSSL after tomorrow. But it
can't change the exported status of the code that has already been
exported. That is the piece that I don't think you understand. The
government can't suddenly decide to recall the source code that was
already exported. Hence, if the U.S. government suddenly decides to
stop the exporting of crypto source code, you just stop accepting new
code. It is not going to make a bit of difference whether there is
U.S. originated code in the OpenSSL code base. OpenSSL will either be
legal to export or not, but it doesn't depend one bit on who wrote it.
Jeffrey Altman * Sr.Software Designer
The Kermit Project * Columbia University
612 West 115th St * New York, NY * 10025 * USA
http://www.kermit-project.org/ * [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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