Encryption and Export Issues

Encryption has long been regulated by the U.S. and other governments as a munition, or weapon of war. Exporting software in violation of export regulations could land you in jail. For a long time, the U.S. would not allow any software that used symmetric encryption keys longer than 40 bits or asymmetric encryption keys longer than 512 bits to be exported without a license.

In January 2000, the U.S. issued new export regulations that permit the export of strong encryption retail products to most destinations worldwide. Most Microsoft products are now eligible for export and worldwide download in their strong encryption versions. This includes the Windows operating systems, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Outlook, and ...

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