Re: Linux crypto?

Herman Oosthuysen
2002-05-24T18:37:57Z

Hmm, here is a brief policy statement on crypto in Canada. I know that this
in not the US, but Canadian and US policies follow each other closely in
military matters, due to various mutual defence agreements. From this, it
is clear that most legal issues regarding the use/development of crypto has
been dropped in North America. This makes sense, since it is far easier to
gather intelligence by other means than by decrypting computer data.

Instead of worrying about US law, you should now worry about
French/Chinese/Russian law instead...

---

SUMMARY OF CANADA'S CRYPTOGRAPHY POLICY

BACKGROUNDER

The Government is implementing a cryptography policy that:

encourages the growth of electronic commerce;
allows Canadian producers to export their products globally within the
framework of international arrangements; and
contains measures to maintain the capability of law enforcement agencies to
ensure public safety.
Support for Electronic Commerce

Canadians are free to develop, import and use whatever cryptography products
they wish.

The Government will not implement mandatory key recovery requirements or
licensing regimes.

The Government encourages industry to establish responsible practices, such
as key recovery techniques for stored data.

The Government will act as a model user of cryptography through the
practices of the Government of Canada Public Key Infrastructure (GOC PKI).

The Government encourages and supports industry-led accreditation of private
sector certification authorities.

Export / International Agreements

Canada will continue to implement cryptography export controls in keeping
with the framework of the international Wassenaar Arrangement.

Canada will take into consideration the export practices of other countries
and the availability of comparable products when rendering export permit
decisions.

The export permit application process will be made more transparent and
procedures will be streamlined to ensure the least regulatory intervention
necessary.

Public Safety

The Government proposes amendments to the Criminal Code and other statutes
as necessary to:

criminalize the wrongful disclosure of keys;
deter the use of encryption in the commission of a crime;
deter the use of cryptography to conceal evidence;
apply existing interception, search and seizure and assistance procedures to
cryptographic situations and circumstances.

---

Cheers,
--
Herman Oosthuysen
Herman@WirelessNetworksInc.com
Suite 300, #3016, 5th Ave NE,
Calgary, Alberta, T2A 6K4, Canada
Phone: (403) 569-5687, Fax: (403) 235-3965
----- Original Message -----
From: Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
To: Thomas 'Dent' Mirlacher <dent@cosy.sbg.ac.at>
Cc: David S. Miller <davem@redhat.com>; <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>;
<tori@ringstrom.mine.nu>; <imipak@yahoo.com>; <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Sent: Friday, May 24, 2002 12:41 PM
Subject: Re: Linux crypto?

> > > They won't let me (or any other US citizen) make any edits to any of
> > > the ipsec sources if it were to be added to the main tree. That's
> > > unacceptable because it means that effectively I cannot maintain the
> > > networking.
> >
> > well the _big_ thing the freeswan people are afraid of, is exactly the
> > crypto laws in the us.
>
> They refuse to have a US citizen working on it. Which is reasonable given
> the historu of US law, but until the US finishes outlawing computers in
> a couple of years that is a problem.
>
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