Interesting People mailing list archives
Here we go yet again .. comments welcomes (crypto)
From: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1993 13:01:55 -0500
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Subpoena served on Austin Code Works for material related to Moby Crypto. At 10:30 PM EDT Thursday, 16 Sept 1993 Theodore R. Siggins, special agent for the Department of Treasury, U.S. Customs Service office of enforcement for Austin, TX (512) 482-5502 served the following subpoena: United States District Court Northern District of California TO: Custodian of Records Austin Code Works 11100 Leafwood Lane Austin, TX (512) 258-0785 SUBPOENA TO TESTIFY BEFORE GRAND JURY documents of object(s) PLACE U.S. Courthouse & Federal Building 280 South First Street San Jose, CA 95113 Grand Jury Room 2115 September 22, 1993 9:00 AM YOU ARE ALSO COMMANDED to bring with you Any and all correspondence, contracts, payments, and record, including those stored as computer data, relating to the international distribution of the commercial product "Moby Crypto" and any other commercial product related to PGP and RSA Source Code for the time period June 1, 1991 to the present. CLERK RICHARD W. WIERKING by deputy clerk (illegible) This subpoena is issued on application of the United States of America Michael J. Yamaguchi United States Attorney Assistant U.S. Attorney William P. Keane 280 S. First St., Suite 371 San Jose, CA 95113 (408) 291-7221 s/a Robin Sterzer, Customs 93-1348(SJ) 93-1(SJ) 9 September 1993 served by Theodore R. Siggins special agent Department of Treasury U.S. Customs Service Office of Enforcement P.O. Box 99 Austin, TX 78767 (FTS) 770-5502 (512) 482-5502 --------------------------- BACKGROUND ---------------------------- The day before yesterday I faxed the following to the NSA: Grady Ward 3449 Martha Ct. Arcata, CA 95521 (707) 826-7715 grady () netcom com Charlotte Knepper National Security Agency 301 688 7834 FAX 301 688 8183 14 Sep 93 Re: Moby Crypto and the Austin Code Works Recently you phoned Maria Guthery at the Austin Code Works (512-258-0785) to voice your concern about the publication for export of my product 'Moby Crypto'. As the editor and author of the compilation I made sure not to include any executable code -- only the algorithmic description in C source code that can be found (and exported) from scores of books and journals from the US distributed throughout the world. I believe that this material qualifies for the 'public domain' technical documentation exception under the current DTR rules. It seems to me that proscribing the publication of material because it is conveyed on a magnetic media rather than paper pulp is an NSA initiative that is both destructive to our basic freedom of expression and to the trade renaissance that Vice President Al Gore and the Clinton Administration are trying to foster. Even the Supreme Court recognizes the role of the computer media in protecting our freedom; beginning this 1993 calendar year all decisions will be provided in electronic form. Further, as you may know, it was recently decided that White House records in electronic form must be protected as a permanent archive of our government. Clearly, magnetic media must be treated as a logical extension of the power and fundamental right of the print media. Please phone, fax, e-mail or post your ideas or any literature to me that you think useful if I have misapprehended the situation. Of course if you wish I will send you a gratis copy of the software (about nine megabytes of sources for DES, RSA, IDEA, Lucifer, PGP, SHA, and so on) for your advice and comments. Very truly yours, GRADY WARD --------------------- WHAT YOU SHOULD DO --------------------- NSA and the US Treasury has started a new, agressive campaign to prevent the spread of cryptographic ideas, algorithms, sources, and documentation. The subpoena was served on the ACW in the night because they MIGHT have sold a copy of source code, already available worlwide, to a foreign national. If you value the freedom to disseminate ideas on both paper and magentic and electronic media, you should immediately preserve your right to have such knowledge by obtaining a copy of the source to Pretty Good Privacy and all other cryptographic materials before a possible complete blackout of such material is attempted by the US authorities. It is not yet against the law to possess source code to PGP, the world's foremost encryption application in the United States. Source is available for a variety of platforms including MS-DOS, Unix, and Macintosh from the following sites: soda.berkeley.edu ghost.dsi.unimi.it nic.funet.fi ota.ox.ac.uk van-bc.wimsey.bc.ca and many other sites For more information about PGP, send a blank mail message to: pgpinfo () mantis co uk -- Grady Ward grady () netcom com 3449 Martha Ct. compiler of Moby lexicons Arcata, CA 95521-4884 e-mail or finger grady () netcom com (707) 826-7715 (voice/24hr FAX) for more information message 2:
From pgp-dev () ra oc com Fri Sep 17 00:34:20 1993
Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1993 02:32:46 -0500 Message-Id: <9309170735.AA23358 () columbine cgd ucar EDU> Errors-To: hughes () soda berkeley edu Reply-To: pgp-dev () ra oc com Originator: pgp-dev () ra oc com Sender: pgp-dev () ra oc com Precedence: bulk From: Philip Zimmermann <prz () columbine cgd ucar EDU> To: kelly () netcom com Subject: PGP Customs investigation subpoena X-Listserver-Version: 6.0 -- UNIX ListServer by Anastasios Kotsikonas I will be posting a note similar to this one later on Friday to various newsgroups. You saw it here first. -prz -------------------------------------------------------------- On Tuesday, 14 September 93, Leonard Mikus, president of ViaCrypt, also known as LEMCOM Systems, in Phoenix, Arizona, was served a Subpoena to Testify Before Grand Jury, to produce documents. The subpoena was issued by the US District Court of Northern California, by Assistant US Attorney William P. Keane in San Jose, as part of an investigation from the San Jose office of US Customs, conducted by Special Agent Robin Sterzer. The US Attorney above Keane is Michael J. Yamaguchi. ViaCrypt is the company that will be selling a fully licensed commercial version of PGP, starting in November. ViaCrypt has a license from PKP to sell products that embody the patents held by PKP. That includes PGP, using the RSA algorithm. The subpoena, dated 9 September, orders the production of "Any and all correspondence, contracts, payments, and records, including those stored as computer data, involving international distribution related to ViaCrypt, PGP, Philip Zimmermann, and anyone or any entity acting on behalf of Philip Zimmermann for the time period June 1, 1991 to the present." The date specified for the production of documents is 22 September 93. The written agreement between ViaCrypt and myself explicitly states that US State Department cryptographic export controls will be adhered to. The implications of this turn of events are that this US Customs investigation has escalated to the level of a Federal Grand Jury and a US Attorney. US Customs says that this change was precipitated by a ruling recently handed down from the State Department that PGP is not exportable. Other subpoenas and/or search warrants are expected. I am the principal target of the investigation. I have advised EFF, CPSR, and my other attorneys of the situation. A legal defense fund will be set up by my lead attorney (Phil Dubois, 303 444-3885) here in Boulder. This case raises some serious public policy questions regarding First Amendment rights to publish, rights to privacy as affected by widespread availability of cryptographic technology, the equivalance of electronic publication with paper publication, the availablity of lawful domestic cryptographic technology in the face of export controls, and certain other Constitutional rights. This may turn into the test case for these issues. -Philip Zimmermann prz () acm org 303 541-0140
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- Here we go yet again .. comments welcomes (crypto) David Farber (Sep 17)