[FYI] Wassenaar

["Axel H. Horns" <axel.horns@fitug.de>]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/220434.asp

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U.S. gets its way on crypto controls
Envoy says other countries accept plan to limit exports

By Aaron
Pressman
REUTERS

               WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 _ Clinton administration
               officials say they have persuaded other leading
               countries to impose strict new export controls on
               computer data-scrambling products under the
               terms of an arms control agreement.


AT A MEETING Thursday in Vienna, the 33 nations
that signed the Wassenaar Arrangement
limiting arms exports _ including Japan,
Germany and Britain _ agreed to impose
controls on the most powerful
data-scrambling technologies, including for
the first time mass-market software, said
David Aaron, U.S. special envoy for
cryptography.


[...]

Leading American high-technology companies,
including Microsoft and Intel, have
complained that the lack of restrictions in
other countries hampered their ability to
compete abroad. Such companies have sought
to have U.S. restrictions relaxed or
repealed, but they have not asked for
tighter controls in other countries.

[...]

Aaron said the Wassenaar countries agreed to continue
export controls on powerful encryption
products in general _ and also decided to
end an exemption for widely available
software containing such capabilities.
        "They plugged a loophole," Aaron
       said. The new policy also reduced
       reporting and paperwork
requirements and specifically excluded from
export controls products that used
encryption to protect intellectual property
_ such as movies or recordings sent over the
Internet _ from illegal copying, Aaron said.

[...]

Under Thursday's agreement, Wassenaar countries
would restrict exports of general encryption
products using more than 56-bit keys and
mass-market products with keys more than 64
bits long, Aaron said.

[...]

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