rotor replacement

[Paul Rubin]

Robin Becker <robin at SPAMREMOVEjessikat.fsnet.co.uk> writes:
> > Presumably he is talking about crypo-export rules.  In the past strong
> > cryptography has been treated as munitions, and as such exporting it
> > (especially from the USA) could have got you into very serious
> > trouble.
> 
> well since rotor is a german (1930's) invention it is a bit late for
> Amricans (Hollywood notwithstanding) to be worried about its export

1. I think the concern was not about exporting from the US, but rather
importing into some countries that restrict the use of crypto.  But
the cat is out of the bag on that one too.  Just about every web
browser includes an SSL stack and those browsers are in use
everywhere.

2. It's irrelevant for the purpose of export rules how old an
invention is or where it was invented.  I don't know where machine
guns were invented, but they're at least 100 years old and you can't
export those without a license either.  My gripe with the crypto rules
are not about the age or nationality of crypto rotor machines (rotor
is not a clone of the Enigma by the way; it just operates on related
principles) but rather on the control of information in general.
Exporting a machine gun is much different from publishing a
description of one.  Software is just a precise type of description.