European Union sets free export of encryption products Jelle van Buuren 22.05.2000 EU sets encryption free, USA protest The European ministers of Foreign Affairs are expected to decide monday to lift all barriers to the export of encryption software to countries outside the European Union. Till now, companies wanting to export encryption products had to ask for permission. The authorities first investigated if the buyer was 'secure'. Intelligence services also investigated the products, which made it possible to copy the keys or demand weakening of the encryption standard as a condition for approval. Decisions could drag on for months, which hampered the trade in encryption software. Besides that, the European industry has asked repeatedly for secure and good encryption, as a condition to boost ecommerce. They want to develop, use and export their own encryption products, as there is mistrust towards American encryption products which are believed to be weakened by the American intelligence agencies, or have secret backdoors. According to the spokesman of commissioner Liikanen of the Information Society, secret services still can ask companies to the destination of their export: 'But they can't any longer block the export. Companies are allowed to export their encryption products without any interference of the intelligence community.' <link in message below to the rest of the story:> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 06:42:56 +0000 (GMT) From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: ISTF Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: ISTF Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: European Union sets free export of encryption products For your information. Thanks to Slashdot.org for the link. http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/8179/1.html Patrick Vande Walle -- If you want to contribute to the Internet future, consider joining the Luxembourg chapter of the Internet Society http://woolly.org/isoclu
