<nettime> EFA International crypto campaign

[Felipe Rodriquez <felipe@xs4all.nl>]

EFA International Crypto Campaign
=================================

Introduction
------------
This document describes a proposed international campaign aimed at
influencing the cryptography policy outcome from the next major round 
of the Wassenaar Arrangement Export Controls for Conventional Arms and 
Dual-Use Goods and Technologies.

The campaign will focus on lobbying the respective governments from as
many as possible of the 33 Wassenaar nations.

Background
----------
Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) <http://www.efa.org.au> recently
commenced a campaign <http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/crypt98.html> 
aimed at liberalising current Australian controls over the export of 
cryptography products and ensuring that no domestic controls over 
the use of cryptography are introduced.  

Crypto exports from Australia are regulated in accordance with
obligations under the Wassenaar Arrangement, as they are in the 
other 32 nations who are signatory to the Arrangement.  The 
Wassenaar Arrangement is a codification of strategic export 
controls.  The text of the Arrangement is available at
<http://www.parrhesia.com/wassenaar> and the Wassenaar 
Secretariat has its own website at <http://www.wassenaar.org>.

Some nations, namely Australia, New Zealand, USA, France and
Russia, go further than is required under Wassenaar and restrict
general purpose cryptography software as dual-use goods.
The Wassenaar Arrangement has had a significant impact on 
cryptography export controls and there seems little doubt that some 
of the Nations represented will seek to use the next round to move 
towards a more repressive cryptography export control regime. 

EFA has been researching the policy position Australia is likely to take
to the next round of discussions on Wassenaar.  It appears that the 
Australian representative will propose that: 

1. Crypto using 40-bit keys should no longer be controlled (hardly
   a significant concession!).  

2. The scope of the General Software Note, which excludes shrink 
   wrapped and public domain software from export control, to be 
   narrowed so that crypto software is no longer exempted.

3. Intangible exports, i.e. via the Internet, to be brought under 
   the Wassenaar umbrella.  Currently only the US controls the 
   export of intangibles. 

EFA is totally opposed to the Australian government stance because of
the adverse impact these proposals will have on electronic commerce,
and on the security of private and commercial communications.
We would like to work with others on an international basis to make sure 
that as many national representatives as possible are fully briefed on 
the impact of the existing controls and the proposed amendments.  
The campaign will lobby for the crypto controls in Wassenaar to be 
limited to strategic military applications.

The next round of Wassenaar talks will take place in Vienna.  
There is likely to be an 'Experts Group' meeting in September followed 
by a Plenary session in November. If these dates are confirmed we do 
not have much time to influence events. 

We intend to develop a concerted international input to the next 
round bearing in mind that there are 33 countries represented in 
Wassenaar: 

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech 
Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, 
Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, 
Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, 
Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United 
Kingdom and United States. 

The campaign needs contacts in each of the above countries who are 
prepared to co-ordinate actions to seek government positions on 
Wassenaar that remove all controls on cryptography other than for 
products specifically designed or intended for defence or weapons use.  
We already have coordinators in Australia, Finland, Hungary, Japan, the 
UK and the USA.  It is people/organisations in other countries on the 
list that we are especially keen to contact.  However we also need 
people to work with the coordinators, so anyone who wants to help 
with this International Campaign should get in touch. 

If you have contacts who might be in a position to take up this cause 
we would be most grateful if you would forward this introduction and 
have them send their names and email addresses to "Michael Baker" 
<mbaker@pobox.com>.

Campaign Aim
------------
The best case scenario is removal of crypto from the controlled list,
except for products specifically designed for defence or weapons use.
As a fall-back position, we are aiming to block the introduction of 
more sweeping controls.

What is needed in each of the 33 Wassenaar nations
--------------------------------------------------
We need national coordinators who will coordinate actions on the 
following three issues: 

1. Determine which agencies are responsible for the Wassenaar 
   Arrangement and which are responsible for e-commerce and crypto 
   policy in your government. 

2. Determine whether policy on Wassenaar is determined by the 
   legislature or by the defence bureaucracy? 

3. Organise lobbying, public discussion of the issue, and discussion 
   between interested parties such as defence and law enforcement 
   interests within government, commerce and trade interests within 
   government, business and privacy interests. 

Item 3 is similar to the local crypto campaign that EFA is currently 
running.  Anyone running a crypto campaign in their own country is 
welcome to use any of the EFA campaign materials at 
<http://www.efa.org.au/Campaigns/crypt98.html> as a basis for their 
own campaign. 

Parallel actions
----------------
In parallel with national efforts we will also be encouraging multi-
national companies with crypto interests to take up this issue in 
each of the Wassenaar countries.  Where possible we will try to have 
such action coordinated with the national efforts. 

Campaign organisation
---------------------
The coordinator of the EFA International Campaign is Michael Baker 
<mbaker@pobox.com>.

The web site for the campaign is <http://www.efa.org.au/wassenaar/>.  
Collected information that is publishable will be placed on this web 
site.  If significant amounts of unpublishable material is collected 
a password protected site will be established.  The web site will 
also contain links to any local campaign web sites that national 
coordinators establish. 

A mailing list <icrypto@efa.org.au> for national coordinators has been
established.  This list will be for discussion of campaign policy.  
Periodic updates on information that has been discovered and placed 
on the web site will also be sent to this list. 

---
Felipe Rodriquez        felipe@xs4all.nl 
---
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