“The US has very restrictive crypto laws in place that make it
almost impossible to export strong cryptography (unless it is
banking, insurance or medical related). This means that American
companies cannot create widely used software with strong crypto and
export it, severely crippling their market.”
“The US software industry is hobbled by restrictive export laws,
and must pay hefty royalties to make use of the RSA algorithm.
Fortunately there are numerous alternatives to be had for free from
outside the US. If you are willing to give Linux or OpenBSD a
chance you can actually move over to a completely free solution
that is also open source, and given commercial support
options, it is no longer as traumatic as it once was. The crypto
software industry/movement outside the US is growing rapidly,
making export laws less and less important as “free” countries
contribute to the pool of knowledge and software. The future looks
good for consumers, I’m not so sure about the US software industry
however.”