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Muq Export Overview

It may possibly be illegal to export unmodified Muq source code or binaries from the United States. I say "possibly" because the laws in question are secret and changed frequently by anonymous officials in an agency (NSA) whose existence has been repeatedly denied by the government, and because these laws have recently been ruled flatly unConstitutional by a US Court of Appeals. (See http://www.epic.org/crypto/export_controls/bernstein_decision_9_cir.html).

It appears to me that the spy agencies in question are taking laws intended to limit the export of weapons from the United States, and attempting to use them to eliminate privacy within the United States.

This should not normally be a problem for you: Even if you need to move a system across the border, the most you should ever have to do to remain squeaky-clean legal is to delete the server source code and executable before crossing the border and then download them again from ftp.cistron.nl afterwards.

There has been as yet not the slightest hint that simply possessing and using privacy-enhancing software within the United States is illegal. (States like Iran are a different matter -- you may draw the death penalty there. Watch where you step!)

The only problem case should be if you need to move your server across the border and it contains modifications or bugfixes not present in the standard release.

In the unlikely case this becomes an issue, the next section details the mechanics of doing so while remaining squeaky-clean legal.


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