[936] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: PGP license - bigger deal than it seems?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (A. Padgett Peterson P.E. Informati)
Sat May 31 18:39:42 1997
Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 17:00:45 -0400 (EDT)
From: "A. Padgett Peterson P.E. Information Security" <PADGETT@hobbes.orl.mmc.com>
To: mpj@ebible.org
CC: cryptography@c2.net
>Therefore, this
>approval is a big deal in the sense that PGP Inc. has effectively
>improved its market with a regulatory concession. In the sense that
>export controls are still far too oppressive, anti-business, and damaging
>to National Security, this is far from a major victory over all.
Having gone through a major effor to provide secure communications channels
with a large number of overseas site, I can say that at least for one of
the listed companies, the duration between request to export *to an
overseas business office of the corporation* and license receipt was
just about two weeks. The major problem was not on the US side but the
morass of foreign regulations faced (now have a few citations on Mr.
Koop's list and know far more than I ever wanted to about the subject).
Singapore in particular was most confusing & response seemed to depend
on the phase of the moon.
Since I like PGP, having even spent personal money for it, it was a bit
of a surprise to see the list of companies since I doubt that most knew they
were receiving a license (or is it that PGP has a license in their name,
am not sure).
But then they are a new company and do not appear to have much corporate
experience even though their products seem to be moving in a corporate
direction: to me the crypto part is trivial, the real work is going
in the access to the crypto and moving from webs of trust to a hierarchial
model. In fact they could IMNSHO develop a product that had no engine in
it at all, just a place that says "plug in crypto of choice here".
I mean when the really good crypto key search engines are being written
to fit entirely in L1 cache, it is obvious that there is not much difficulty
there - it is the buttons and ease of use and key servers that are the
products of the future.
Bottom line, I think PGP has a great future and they seem to be putting
the effort into needed functionality rather than the algorithm of the week.
- now all they need are some marketeers/executives that understand large
corporations and the international market.
Warmly,
Padgett
