Re: lynx-dev SSL and Lynx

[Martin McCormick]

Philip Webb writes:
>US export law & US patents have generally prevented distribution
>of Lynx binaries with SSL pre-compiled: you have to compile your own.

        I am kind of glad this topic came up again.  Recently, I, a US
citizen, living right in the geographical center of the 48 contiguous
US states needed a SSL-capable version of lynx.  I got 
openssl-0.9.1c.tar.gz
from a site in Australia which introduces itself with a rather
frustrated message about US export laws and encryption software, whose
sentiment I fully sympathize with.  In other words; When will the
pols wake up and realize that criminals and terrorists have been doing
this for a long time because they don't let little niceties like
legal/illegal get in the way of doing anything.

        So, I get the patch, the openssl libraries and put it all
together and it works fine.  When asking about a problem I was having
on a different system, I was informed that putting things together in
this way was a violation of a patent and so forth.

        I don't have any trouble understanding why one can't (isn't
supposed to) export strong encryption from the US.  It may be kind of
misguided, but I at least understand that point.  

        The bottom line is, how do we make it work, here in the United
States without breaking the law?

Martin McCormick WB5AGZ  Stillwater, OK 
OSU Center for Computing and Information Services Data Communications Group