Beware Open Source Encryption

“There’s nothing like an official letter from the U.S.
Department of Commerce’s munitions control office to make you choke
on your morning coffee. At least that was my response upon
receiving such a notice a few years ago. It turns out we were (and
still are) exporting “Dr. Dobb’s Essential Books of Cryptography
and Security” CD-ROM which provides the full text of articles and
books — as well as source code — about encryption algorithms and
protocols.

“We’d been exporting “munitions” without a license — that is,
munitions that consisted of source code implementations of
cryptography algorithms.

“The solution was simple: I filled out some paperwork, wrote a
$250 check, and Dr. Dobb’s became a legally sanctioned munitions
exporter. “

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