PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Daniel J. Bernstein, press-20021018@box.cr.yp.to


GOVERNMENT BACKS AWAY FROM CRYPTO REGULATIONS

San Francisco, 18 October 2002 - The government today told a federal
court that several portions of the current encryption regulations would
not be enforced.

The regulations are being challenged by Daniel J. Bernstein, a professor
of mathematics, statistics, and computer science at the University of
Illinois at Chicago. Bernstein's lawsuit led to four court decisions
against the constitutionality of the government's previous regulations.

To comply with the current regulations, cryptographers must send
encryption software to the National Security Agency before showing the
software to foreigners. They must also wait for government approval if
source code for the software is not publicly available.

Department of Justice attorney Tony Coppolino told the court that the
government would not enforce the regulations against cryptographers
working together at conferences. He also told the court that the
government would treat ``assembly language'' as source code.

Chief Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the United States District Court for
the Northern District of California will take the next action in the
case. Observers expect Patel to rely on the government's promises and
dismiss Bernstein's case without deciding the constitutionality of the
current regulations.

``I'm trying to help protect the Internet against bad guys,'' Bernstein
said in a statement. ``I hope it's true that the government is going to
stop interfering in my work.''

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