Re: [twitter-dev] Encrypted data over Twitter

2010-05-28 Thread bujanga
Yes, the laws covered encryption technology and not ciphertext. You
are also correct about regulations concerning amateur radio broadcasts
but that is a different topic. The airwaves are highly regulated and
broadcasters must have a license. I see no legal difference between
inserting ciphertext into this email which is viewable by many and
inserting the same into a tweet.

It is indeed antisocial and Twitter may deem it violates TOS but I
think it would be legal. Remember, even simple things like ROT13 are
considered encryption. ROT13 was used heavily in usenet (you remember
that).

EBG13 vf rapelcgvba!

BTW, the amateur radio regulation has hampered one of my activities in
Disaster Response. If communication systems fail, amateur radio is
considered the great fall-back. So we discussed how to transfer files
which may contain health or financial information. We basically had to
go caveman style and write that our backup plan was to use a courier
even though we were sitting next to a fully functioning ham radio.

On Thu, May 27, 2010 at 1:58 AM, Dave Sherohman  wrote:
> On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 10:16:40AM -0700, John Adams wrote:
>> I think you're referring to ITAR, most of which was repealed in 1997.
>>
>> Until 1996?1997, ITAR classified strong cryptography as arms and prohibited
>> their export from the U.S. Times have changed quite a bit since then.
>
> Also, as I understood the matter at the time, ITAR only restricted
> international distribution of encryption technology (i.e., crypto
> algorithms and implementations of those algorithms) and didn't care at
> all about what might be done with the resulting ciphertext or where it
> might be sent.
>
> However...  Amateur radio regulations in the US do include (or at least
> did include last I heard) an absolute ban on transmitting encrypted
> information.  It used to be fairly common for ham radio operators to use
> packet radio technologies to transmit TCP/IP data over the amateur bands
> in order to get free roaming internet access; I expect this practice is
> less common today (thanks to widespread cellular data access), but not
> extinct.  When using packet radio on amateur bands, ssh/ssl/etc. are not
> legal due to the crypto ban on those bands.  I would expect encrypted
> tweets to be illgal under the same regulations, although that may be
> dependent on whether the receiver has the means to decrypt them.
>
> --
> Dave Sherohman
>


Re: [twitter-dev] Encrypted data over Twitter

2010-05-26 Thread Dave Sherohman
On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 10:16:40AM -0700, John Adams wrote:
> I think you're referring to ITAR, most of which was repealed in 1997.
> 
> Until 1996?1997, ITAR classified strong cryptography as arms and prohibited
> their export from the U.S. Times have changed quite a bit since then.

Also, as I understood the matter at the time, ITAR only restricted
international distribution of encryption technology (i.e., crypto
algorithms and implementations of those algorithms) and didn't care at
all about what might be done with the resulting ciphertext or where it
might be sent.

However...  Amateur radio regulations in the US do include (or at least
did include last I heard) an absolute ban on transmitting encrypted
information.  It used to be fairly common for ham radio operators to use
packet radio technologies to transmit TCP/IP data over the amateur bands
in order to get free roaming internet access; I expect this practice is
less common today (thanks to widespread cellular data access), but not
extinct.  When using packet radio on amateur bands, ssh/ssl/etc. are not
legal due to the crypto ban on those bands.  I would expect encrypted
tweets to be illgal under the same regulations, although that may be
dependent on whether the receiver has the means to decrypt them.

-- 
Dave Sherohman


Re: [twitter-dev] Encrypted data over Twitter

2010-05-26 Thread John Adams
I think you're referring to ITAR, most of which was repealed in 1997.

Until 1996–1997, ITAR classified strong cryptography as arms and prohibited
their export from the U.S. Times have changed quite a bit since then.

I don't speak for our terms of service group, and this is by no means an
official statement, but I do think that passing encrypted traffic in public
tweets would be fairly antisocial and against the spirit of the service.

-john

On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 10:09 AM, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky <
zn...@borasky-research.net> wrote:

> Quoting bujanga :
>
>  Just curious. Which laws would be violated?
>>
>>
> There are numerous US laws governing encryption technologies. I'm not
> familiar with them in detail but mostly they attempt to restrict access to
> the technologies to just our closest allies.
>
>
>


Re: [twitter-dev] Encrypted data over Twitter

2010-05-26 Thread M. Edward (Ed) Borasky

Quoting bujanga :


Just curious. Which laws would be violated?



There are numerous US laws governing encryption technologies. I'm not  
familiar with them in detail but mostly they attempt to restrict  
access to the technologies to just our closest allies.





Re: [twitter-dev] Encrypted data over Twitter

2010-05-26 Thread bujanga
Just curious. Which laws would be violated?


[twitter-dev] Encrypted data over Twitter

2010-05-24 Thread M. Edward (Ed) Borasky

What is Twitter's policy concerning encrypted data over Twitter? Specifically

1. Are encrypted direct messages allowed?
2. When annotations are deployed, will encrypted meta-data be allowed?

Note - I am *not* asking about public tweets - I would consider public  
encrypted tweets to be spam, and probably in violation of numerous  
laws. ;-)