Re: LYNX-DEV How do I get https to work?

[Michael Ritzert]

   On Wed, 9 Apr 1997, Michael Ritzert wrote:

   :   There is an SSL enabled Lynx available from
   :
   :       ftp://shadow.cabi.net/pub/Linux
   :
   :Do You really believe rpm is the appropriate standard for
   :distributions? Only redhat has it on their CDs. tar.gz would be more
   :appropriate, zip and zoo, too.

   Okay, this thing has come up before so I should answer it.  Almost
   everyone in the Linux community agrees that the redhat package manager is
   a great idea.  Yes, it is not the ideal distribution method for software

Not quite: debian uses its own format, slackware gzipped tars plus
some additional information and SuSE (that's what i am running), the
leading german distributor, still uses slackware compatible packaging.
If space is not an issue, an additional tar.gz or something similar,
would be much more friendly to the community.

   like Lynx.  The only reason I mentioned it was because it's the only site
   I know of that distributes a SSL enabled Lynx.  When you do it any other
   way (ask Fote, get Tom's patches/proxy) you have to know what you're
   doing.

   :Is it a violation to US export laws to download this file from a
   :german site?

   No.  There are no laws restricting the import of cryptographic software.
   There are laws restricting re-export.  (makes you wonder who's making
   these things up).

Yes.

   :2. The ssl code has to be re-implemented on the base of libraries freely
   :available outside the US. Such libs exist, don't they?

   Not the point.  Tom's proxy is based on SSLeay, freely available SSL
   library developed and maintained by Australians.  It's still not

That's the lib i had in mind but i was not sure abaout the name. 

   exportable because the hooks were written by Tom, a US resident in the US
   at the time.  The only way we could have a copy of crypto software
   developed by a US resident outside the US without someone breaking a US
   export law was if we were to sponsor a trip for the developer, send them
   to the Bahamas maybe, where they could write everything.  That still does
   not mean the code is exportable.  What the US (and other governments) want
   to do is isolate the development of cryptographic tools, hamper the
   development of an international community of cryptographers from working
   together. 

   :2.a. It would be great if there was an open standardized interface
   :between the ssl code which would make it as easy as possible to adapt
   :the stuff to the other free browsers, notably mMosaic, chimera 2.x,
   :arena  and mnemonic (if the latter will evolve from it present
   :discussion state to some runnable code).

   As Tom wrote a while ago, it's unclear whether the hooks themselves can be
   exported.  Never assume the EAR (nee ITAR) was developed by rational
   beings.  It was developed and is enforced by people, organizations,
   structures within society that _will_ use any excuse to attain their
   objectives because they firmly believe _they_ _are_ _right_.  These are
   the fundamentalists wee should be afraid of.

Indeed. But because of that they cannot be exported presently and
never will in the future ==> they must be written and maintained
outside the US.

Final question/suggestion: now that we have an exportable version of
lynx --- would it not be possible to do the following:

1. isolate the routines containing the interfaces to the crypto stuff,
making them as small as possible. The standard lynx without ssl
contains (ideally) dummy routines. Such a thing should be exportable.

2. make a seperate crypto package which is maintained outside the us,
maybe by a non us citizen. This is distributed as a plugin to the
normal source and may be imported in the us. It would ease up 2.a of
my previous posting.

2.a. This separation seems useful because in some countries, notably
France (and to some degree also in Germany), there are ongoing
initiatives to forbid the use of crypto transfers over the net at
all. If these initiatives were successful there should be a way to
keep lynx usable.

Michael
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