Re: encrypting swap (was Re: TEST)

["Mr. Shannon Aldinger" <god@yinyang.hjsoft.com>]

On Mon, 7 Aug 2000, Rik van Riel wrote:

> On Mon, 7 Aug 2000, Mr. Shannon Aldinger wrote:
> >
> > They also aren't getting included due to the US's munitions export
> > laws. Yes, cryptography falls under the same rules as 50mm shells, and
> > nukes. So don't expect the kerneli.org patches to get merged until after
> > those rules go away. Since Linus is in the US, his code and the whole
> > kernel falls under US export law, if he adds encryption.
> 
> Which doesn't really matter.
> 
It does matter since the official kernel source patches come from the US.
Importing to US isn't a problem, exporting from is. That is why
kerneli.org is hosted outside the US.

> Linux distributors from outside of the US (SuSE, Conectiva, TurboLinux
> (the asian branch), etc...) are very much allowed to add strong
> encryption to their distribution and "even" sell those CDs to the
> US...
> 
Importing to US is not a problem.

> <shameless plug>
> Conectiva already ships with Free/SWAN and some other (network)
> security things. No encrypted storage drivers that I know off,
> but if there's enough interest I may be able to persuade the
> people here to include that too...
> </shameless plug>
> 
If exporting from US isn't a problem as you implied above, then why
doesn't Henry Spencer, et al accept any code from a US citizen or a person
who happens to be in the US at the time? If all distributions and kernel
source were imported to the US, then you would have a point. As it stands
the US still has stupid restrictions on computer software and hardware
that can be exported, cryptography is the most restricted.



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