Export Warning

About export restrictions on cryptography

Cryptography is classified as a munitions by the United States statute which places export restrictions on munitions; these restrictions contain a broad exemption for materials which are freely available in public libraries. Software on an anonymous ftp site is so clearly like information in a public library that it surprises me that some people still claim otherwise. The legal issue is unsettled, although the eventual outcome should be clear.

In order to avoid trouble in the interim, however, we ask all non-US users to find copies of PGP and other ciphering software on another site; we ask that they not download them from this site. We'd prefer not to make this request, but adjudicial terrorism in the US being what it is, we feel we must.

If a file is marked NOT FOR EXPORT, then that file and its children contain software which can be clearly construed to fall under export control law.

Nevertheless, the encryption software here on this site can be found all over the world, not just here on this site or just here in the United States. We realize that our request makes no difference to the actual distribution of encryption software except for a small inconvenience to individuals not in the USA or Canada who might otherwise use our site.

Only the actual encryption software on this site is covered by this request. All the other materials are free for your taking. Please take them.

Enjoy.

Eric Hughes - cypherpunks ftp site maintainer

For more information on export restrictions, check out John Gilmore's Export Restriction WWW.

The Cypherpunks WWW - sameer <sameer@c2.org>