Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/02/biztech/articles/25encryption.html February 25, 2000 U.S. Lets Professor Put Encryption on Internet By REUTERS WASHINGTON -- The United States will allow a computer scientist to put instructions for writing a powerful computer data-scrambling program on his Web site, but his high-profile lawsuit challenging U.S. export restrictions on encryption may continue, his lawyer said Thursday. President Bill Clinton in January dramatically liberalized once-strict U.S. export limits on encryption programs, which scramble information and render it unreadable without a password or software "key." The changes recognized that encryption, used in everything from Web browsing software to cellular telephones, has become essential for securing electronic commerce and global communications. The move also followed a May 6, 1999 decision by a U.S. Appeals Court panel that the old rules barring University of Illinois professor Daniel Bernstein from posting instructions for his "Snuffle" program on the Internet were an unconstitutional violation of the scientist's freedom of speech. In a private advisory letter sent last week, the U.S. Commerce Department confirmed that the new encryption export policy permitted Bernstein to post instructions, called source code, for his program on the Internet for all to see. Any other computer programmer could easily compile the source code into a functioning program. "In light of the changes in licensing and review requirements for publicly available source code, the new regulations do not interfere with his planned activities as you have described them," the Commerce Department letter said in response to a letter from Bernstein's lawyer. Under the old rules, Bernstein had to obtain an export license for each person who wanted to view his Web site from outside the United States -- an impossible task given the Net's global reach. But the new rules allow anyone to post encryption source code on the Internet as long as they also send a copy to the government and do not charge royalties for use of the code. "We are still considering our options," said Cindy Cohn, Bernstein's lawyer. Cohn said the Commerce Department letter failed to clear up some questions about the new rules. The department did make clear that a Web site which merely picked up code posted by someone else, a practice known as mirroring, would not be held responsible for following the export rules. And Bernstein or others would not have to notify the government again each time they posted bug fixes or updates. Bernstein's lawsuit came about because under the old rules, a book containing computer source code could be shipped out of the United States without restriction but the same source code posted on the Internet or put on a floppy disk could not be "exported" without a license. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last year decided two to one that the old rules violated the First Amendment by restricting Bernstein's speech. But in January, the full court asked the panel to reconsider the ruling in light of the new Clinton policy. ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml -----------------------
