Strike to protest Wassenaar! This is a global call for computer professionals to strike on Monday, 14 December, 1998 to protest the signing of the Wassenaar Arrangement, ( http://www.wassenaar.org ) an international treaty that imposes new restrictions on cryptographic software technology. The strike is meant to raise awareness about the importance of cryptography, about the U.S. government's wrongheaded attempts to curtail its use, and about the strong-arm tactics used by the United States to pressure other countries into limiting their citizens' rights the way it has limited its own. Background For many years, a U.S. law known as ITAR regulating the export of munitions has been used by the government to prohibit the export not only of missiles and tanks but of cryptographic software as well ("crypto" for short). Crypto is an essential technology for electronic commerce, online privacy, and computer security. Without it, malicious hackers can easily intercept credit card numbers and bank account data, read private e-mail and forge messages, and infiltrate computer networks. Crypto is also used to protect against unwanted information disclosure that's not malicious; for instance, to keep employees on a computer network from accidentally stumbling across a file full of salary information. Most major software vendors require crypto capabilities in their products. For instance, Netscape Navigator contains crypto software from RSA for doing such things as secure credit card transactions. The U.S. was alone among its major trading partners in imposing such restrictions on crypto export (France being a notable exception). In the mid- 1990's, as the Internet began reaching the mainstream, software vendors began complaining that the export restrictions made it impossible for them to compete globally. They had to deliberately "cripple" their software, disabling crypto capabilities, before being allowed to export it. Their competitors overseas did not face this handicap. U.S. software vendors pleaded with the government for a level playing field. Around the same time, various legal challenges to the export control of crypto were underway, notably Phil Karn's Applied Cryptography case and Dan Bernstein's Snuffle case. A ruling in the Snuffle case declared parts of ITAR to be unconstitutional. Meanwhile, Phil Zimmermann, author of the popular crypto program PGP, was the object of years of legal harassment by the government---harassment that was abruptly dropped when the government (apparently) realized they were on shaky legal ground. Similarly, attempts by the Clinton administration to place new domestic restraints on crypto---the so- called "Clipper chip" proposals, that would have required all encrypted data to be decipherable by the government---failed because of constitutionality concerns. Because of these and other developments, the days appeared to be numbered for laws restricting crypto technology. Then on 3 December 1998, 33 countries signed the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies, whose noble purpose is to preserve international peace and stability by reducing the proliferation of offensive strategic weapons. Incredibly, though, crypto software is included in the treaty as an offensive strategic weapon! The U.S., under pressure from its high-tech sector to "create a level playing field," did just that---not by dropping the unreasonable restrictions on crypto export but by bullying its trading partners into adopting the same ones! This, despite the fact that they didn't want to, despite Europe's recent commitment to strong privacy laws, and despite mounting legal evidence that the crypto export laws are flawed. For more information browse to http://www.glasswings.com.au/wassenaar.html Christopher Anderson Office of Carlo Carli MLA Labor Spokesperson on Information Technology & Multimedia email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 65 Moreland Rd, Coburg, AUSTRALIA, 3058 Ph: +61 3 93841241 Fax: +61 3 93840481 Mobile: +61 412606691 ________________________________________________________________________ Carlo Carli MLA - http://www.vicnet.net.au/~ccarli ALP Multimedia - http://www.vicnet.net.au/~ccarli/multimedia.html Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List As vilified, slandered and attacked by One Nation mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
