A resurfaced 1997 report details Netscape securing U.S. approval to export 56-bit encryption, easing previous 40-bit limits
Previous export controls cut Netscape's international revenue by 4%.
Many users thanked @pmarca for helping Netscape win federal approval to export 56-bit encryption, while others criticized government rules that restricted access to stronger tools.
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@pmarca Phil’s t-shirt FTW.
@pmarca thank you for that work btw
Ah, memories.
@pmarca Except this time we have the opportunity to learn from last time: we don’t need to wait to develop open protocols and user controlled infrastructure around AI, otherwise the architecture will be decided for us by a select few under geopolitical, investor incentive & business risk
@pmarca ❤️
@pmarca 56-bit!
@pmarca Let's create <img> tag.
@pmarca Elgamal was CSO? nice
@pmarca I remember the story of books with source code of encryption printed in them being used to bypass these export controls lol
@pmarca For a moment I thought "OK" was a reference to the quality, not an export permission. As in, "Netscape's encryption is just... ok." I'd forgotten the days when PGP was considered a weapon.
@pmarca ssl is so profound, sometimes i think of different solutions, but in the end, we are still using it at a massive scale. (my personal work/interest), this screenshot, and today's anthropic incident. possibly lead to mtls as it's actually here as working code...
@pmarca Wasn’t it more along the lines…. you couldn’t export anything, they couldn’t already break?
@pmarca 40 bits were plenty in ‘97
@pmarca Ah yes, the encryption wars of the 1990s.
Those were interesting times, indeed.
@pmarca Ha ha, right! I covered Netscape with @CNN back in the day while I was in law school at @BerkeleyLaw.
If I remember right we went to the headquarters and I think interviewed Barksdale or something. It was pretty cool to be there and help with the story.
@pmarca What ever happened to that company?
@pmarca THANK YOU! 😍
@pmarca We can remeber for you wholesale 🤭
I can remember the process we had as a commodity exchange just to list a new product. It was arduous. All these govt bureaucrats deciding if it was needed or not, and if the structure was right or not and if the pricing/margin was right or not. The CFMA 2000 changed a lot of that. But, it sure wasn't "let the market decide"
@pmarca It's a really wild concept to me and I will never comprehend why governments regulate math.