Glenn Cole writes:

> The argument (as I understand it) goes that software is language, so limits
>  on software implies limits on language, which violates the First Amendment
>  (free speech), which is unconstitutional.
>
>  The (brief right now) story is at
>
>        < http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,36217,00.html >
>

As they say in big-time lawyerly circles, the whole question may be moot [or
as they say in military circles: OBE ("overcome by events")]. The NY Times
reported this story a few days ago on May 2:

=======================================

Israeli Scientist Reports Discovery of
Advance in Code Breaking

          By JOHN MARKOFF

          An Israeli computer scientist is expected to shake up the world of
          cryptography this week when he introduces a design for a device
          that could quickly unscramble computer-generated codes that until
now
          have been considered secure enough for financial and government
          communications.

          In a paper to be presented Tuesday in Prague, the computer
scientist,
          Adi Shamir, one of the world's foremost cryptographers, will
describe a
          machine, not yet built, that could vastly improve the ability of
code
          breakers to decipher codes thought to be unbreakable in practical
terms.
          They are used to protect everything from financial transactions on
the
          Internet to account balances stored in so-called smart cards.

          Shamir's idea would combine existing
          technology into a special computer that
          could be built for a reasonable cost, said
          several experts who have seen the paper.
          It is scheduled to be presented at an annual
          meeting of the International Association for
          Cryptographic Research, which begins on
          Monday.

          The name of Mr. Shamir, a computer
          scientist at Weizmann Institute of Science
          in Rehovoth, Israel, is the "S" in R. S. A.,
          the encryption design that has become the
          international standard for secure transmissions. He is a
co-inventor of
          R.S.A. -- with Ronald Rivest of the Massachusetts Institute of
          Technology and Leonard Adleman of the University of Southern
          California.

          R.S.A. is known as public-key cryptography. In this system, a person
          has a public key and a private key. The public key is used to
scramble a
          message and may be used by anyone, so it can, even should, be made
          public. But the private key that is needed to unscramble the message
          must be kept secret by the person who holds it.

          R.S.A., like many public-key systems, is based on the fact that it
is
          immensely difficult and time-consuming for even the most powerful
          computers to factor large numbers. But Mr. Shamir's machine would
          make factoring numbers as long as about 150 digits much easier, thus
          making it much simpler to reveal messages scrambled with public-key
          encryption methods....

=======================================

You can read the whole story by going to the NY Times web page. However the
URL I have is too long (and probably too temporary) to be of any use. Instead
go to the search engine and type: encryption israel shamir

That should bring up the specific article immediately. Otherwise, the NY
Times has published over 500 articles on encryption and its export in the
last two years alone.

Wirt Atmar