24 December 1997

    To: bernstein-announce@toad.com
    To: paul@vix.com, carl@also.media.org, gnu@toad.com
    To: spock@rsa.com, pol@rsa.com, baldwin@rsa.com
    Subject: Gilmore Publishes Strong Crypto Code Online for Authentication
    Date: Tue, 23 Dec 1997 12:40:43 -0800
    From: John Gilmore <gnu@toad.com>

    [This announcement does not relate directly to the Bernstein case,
     but I felt the overlap of interest would be very strong.  -- John]

          Strong Crypto Code Published Online for Authentication

    San Francisco, December 23, 1997 - Civil libertarian John Gilmore
    today published strong authentication source code on the Internet,
    making it available for worldwide access, despite U.S. National
    Security Agency attempts to restrict such software.  He is publishing
    Domain Name System Security software that contains a complete copy of
    RSAREF, well-known cryptography software that is a predecessor to the
    DNSsafe software released in October by RSA Data Security, Inc.

    Mr Gilmore explains, "Internet publication of cryptography software is
    considered an export by the US Government, and often requires
    government permission under the Export Administration Regulations
    (EAR).  But those regulations specifically exempt programs which
    merely prove that information is authentic (authentication), rather
    than hiding the information (privacy)."

    The export regulations were amended in 1989 to exclude authentication
    software.  Since that time, however, the National Security Agency has
    been telling people privately that the exclusion only applies to
    ready-to-run "binary" programs.  They have reportedly claimed that the
    regulations still require government permission to export the
    human-readable "source code" of authentication programs.  The plain
    text of the regulations makes no such distinction, though; all
    authentication programs are exempt.

    Readers can obtain the software from Mr. Gilmore's web site for Domain
    Name System Security, at http://www.toad.com/~dnssec or at
    http://www.flash.net/~dnssec.  Future releases will be available from
    the Internet Software Consortium, http://www.isc.org/bind.html.

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which Mr. Gilmore co-founded, is
    sponsoring a lawsuit to have the entire cryptography software export
    control regime overturned.  In the three-year suit, Bernstein v. State,
    Judge Marilyn Hall Patel has invalidated export controls administered by
    both the State Department and the Commerce Department.  She ruled they
    are an unconstitutional prior restraint against our First Amendment
    right to speak and publish about cryptography.  The case is now in the
    Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

    Domain Name System Security:		http://www.toad.com/~dnssec
    				or	http://www.flash.net/~dnssec
    Internet Software Consortium:		http://www.isc.org
    RSA Data Security:			http://www.rsa.com
    Electronic Frontier Foundation:	        http://www.eff.org

    Press Contacts:

    	John Gilmore, Founding Board Member, EFF
    	+1 415 221 6524, gnu@toad.com

    	Shari Steele, Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation
    	+1 301 375 8856, ssteele@eff.org

    	More press background is available at:
    	http://www.toad.com/~dnssec/pressrel1.background.txt