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Everyone anticipates that the case will take several years to settle, and no one has any idea how it will come out. Meanwhile, the Computer Security and Privacy Advisory Board, an official advisory board to NIST, voted in March 1992 to recommend a national policy review of cryptographic issues, including export policy. They said that export policy is decided solely by agencies concerned with national security, without input from agencies concerned with encouraging commerce. Those agencies concerned with national security are doing everything possible to make sure this doesn’t change, but eventually it has to. ### 25.15 Foreign Import and Export of Cryptography Other countries have their own import and export rules [311]. This summary is incomplete and probably out of date. Countries could have rules and ignore them, or could have no rules but restrict import, export, and use anyway. — Australia requires an import certificate for cryptography only upon request from the exporting country. — Canada has no import controls, and export controls are similar to those of the United States. The exportation of items from Canada may be subject to restriction if they are included on the Export Control List pursuant to the Export and Import Permits Act. Canada follows the CoCom regulations in the regulation of cryptographic technology. Encryption devices are outlined in category five, part two of Canada’s export regulations. These provisions are similar to U.S. category five in the Export Administration Regulations. — China has a licensing scheme for importing commodities; exporters must file an application with the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Based on China’s List of Prohibited and Restricted Imports and Exports enacted in 1987, China restricts the import and export of voice-encoding devices. — France has no special rules for the import of cryptography, but they have rules regarding the sale and use of cryptography in their country. All products must be certified: Either they must meet a published specification, or the company proprietary specification must be provided to the government. The government may also ask for two units for their own use. Companies must have a license to sell cryptography within France; the license specifies the target market. Users must have a license to buy and use cryptography; the license includes a statement to the effect that users must be prepared to give up their keys to the government up to four months after use. This restriction may be waived in some cases: for banks, large companies, and so on. And there is no use license requirement for cryptography exportable from the U.S. — Germany follows the CoCom guidelines, requiring a license to export cryptography. They specifically maintain control of public-domain and mass-market cryptography software. — Israel has import restrictions, but no one seems to know what they are. — Belgium, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom follow the CoCom guidelines on cryptography, requiring a license for export. — Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, and Switzerland have no import or export controls on cryptography. ### 25.16 Legal Issues Are digital signatures real signatures? Will they stand up in court? Some preliminary legal research has resulted in the opinion that digital signatures would meet the requirements of legally binding signatures for most purposes, including commercial use as defined in the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). A GAO (General Accounting Office) decision, made at the request of NIST, opines that digital signatures will meet the legal standards of handwritten signatures [362]. The Utah Digital Signature Act went into effect on May 1, 1995, providing a legal framework for the use of digital signatures in the judicial system. California has a bill pending, while Oregon and Washington are still writing theirs. Texas and Florida are right behind. By this book’s publication, more states will have followed suit. The American Bar Association (EDI and Information Technology Division of the Science and Technology Section) produced a model act for states to use for their own legislation. The act attempts to incorporate digital signatures into the existing legal infrastructure for signatures: the Uniform Commercial Code, the United States Federal Reserve regulations, common law of contracts and signatures, the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, and the United Nations Convention on International Bills of Exchange and International Promissory Committees. Included in the act are responsibilities and obligations of certification authorities, issues of liability, and limits and policies. In the United States, laws about signatures, contracts, and commercial transactions are state laws, so this model act is designed for states. The eventual goal is a federal act, but if this all begins at the state level there is less chance of the NSA mucking up the works. Even so, the validity of digital signatures has not been challenged in court; their legal status is still undefined. In order for digital signatures to carry the same authority as handwritten signatures, they must first be used to sign a legally binding document, and then be challenged in court by one party. The court would then consider the security of the signature scheme and issue a ruling. Over time, as this happened repeatedly, a body of precedent rulings would emerge regarding which digital signature methods and what key sizes are required for a digital signature to be legally binding. This is likely to take years. Until then, if two people wish to use digital signatures for contracts (or purchase requests, or work orders, or whatever), it is recommended that they sign a paper contract in which they agree in the future to be bound by any documents digitally signed by them [1099]. This document would specify algorithm, key size, and any other parameters; it should also delineate how disputes would be resolved.
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