Re: rotor replacement

From: Scott David Daniels (Scott.Daniels_at_Acm.Org)
Date: 01/19/05 

Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 06:03:19 -0800

Paul Rubin wrote:
> Robin Becker <robin@SPAMREMOVEjessikat.fsnet.co.uk> writes:
>>What exactly are/were the political reasons for rotor removal?
> Some countries have laws about cryptography software (against some
> combination of export, import, or use).

I understand this to be true. Since I am trying to address encryption
in the zipfile module, and I know you actually follow a bit of the
encryption stuff, can you answer a question or two for me?

> The Python maintainers didn't want to deal with imagined legal hassles
> that might develop from including good crypto functions in the
> distribution. Then it became obvious that the same imagined hassles
> could also befall the rotor module, so that was removed.

Are you saying these hassles are, in fact, imaginary rather than real?
Is this because you feel python is over-cautious about the USA, or is
this an opinion on "essentially all countries?" This is not a quibble
or a kvetch; I would like your understanding about the world legal
state of dealing with encryption (which, I assure you, I won't take as
definitive). I would hate to think someone in, for example, the UAE,
was busted for downloading or republishing python "out-of-the-box."

Don't get me wrong, I'd love the answer to be "sure its fine," but my
current plans are to provide a way to connect a crypto package to
zipfile without providing any such package myself.

--Scott David Daniels
Scott.Daniels@Acm.Org

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