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Australian Law Could Criminalize the Teaching of Encryption

Posted by Soulskill on from the technophobes-writing-laws dept.

New submitter petherfile writes: According to Daniel Mathews, new laws passed in Australia (but not yet in effect) could criminalize the teaching of encryption. He explains how a ridiculously broad law could effectively make any encryption stronger than 512 bits criminal if your client is not Australian. He says, "In short, the DSGL casts an extremely wide net, potentially catching open source privacy software, information security research and education, and the entire computer security industry in its snare. Most ridiculous, though, are some badly flawed technicalities. As I have argued before, the specifications are so imprecise that they potentially include a little algorithm you learned at primary school called division. If so, then division has become a potential weapon, and your calculator (or smartphone, computer, or any electronic device) is a potential delivery system for it."

5 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. 512 Words by randalware · · Score: 5, Funny

    How about outlawing the teaching of any religion with a major text longer than 512 words ?

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    This is my opinion based on what little I know and understand of the rumors and lies Thanks, Randal
  2. Beware Al-Khwarizmi... by TeknoHog · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..and his weapons of math instruction.

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    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
  3. Won't Someone Please Think of the Boolean Logic?! by mentil · · Score: 5, Funny

    If having XOR is criminal, then only criminals will have XOR.

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    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  4. AND? by Viol8 · · Score: 5, Funny

    AND?

  5. Re:It's an accidentally-on-purpose. by jblues · · Score: 3, Funny

    They'll just issue a national proxy cert... :-)

    I once worked for a software company in Australia. All of the actual software development was outsourced to India, while the mail system was in-sourced. In the respective Sydney and Brisbane offices there was something known as "the inter-office filing tray" and any time someone would fly between the Brisbane or Sydney office, it was necessary to check the inter-office filing tray and deliver any documents.

    I imagine that will be reimplemented on a national level, with bi-partisan support for a "National Filing Tray Network". All citizens when going about their daily business will be required to route items between trays. No doubt the conservative party will want to import cheap baskets, while the labor party will support a basket weaving industry of their own.

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    If it acquires resources on instantiation like a duck, then its a shared_ptr<Duck>