Re: The trademark issue

[Michael Dillon <michael@memra.com>]

On Sun, 8 Dec 1996, Kent Crispin wrote:

> The only methods to do these things involve strong cryptography, and 
> I understand that France has fairly restrictive laws regarding use of 
> cryptography.  The question is, are the French laws such that it 
> would be impossible for a private company to become a registry for 
> .com, because of the fact that it would require using software with 
> strong cryptographic algorithms?

The laws aren't that strict. For one, you can use crypto technology if you
receive government authorization. And the laws are even more liberal if
the crypto technology is used only to authenticate so it would appear that
a registry could operate in France if it informed the appropriate
government officials that it was using the crypto authentication
technology. The URL below has a bit of info and leads to other sites with
some more info.

http://cwis.kub.nl/~frw/people/koops/lawsurvy.htm#fr
	
Perhaps some of the French members of this list would contact le SGDN ou
le SCSSI and ask for clarification of these laws.

http://web.cnam.fr/Network/Crypto/

Michael Dillon                   -               Internet & ISP Consulting
Memra Software Inc.              -                  Fax: +1-604-546-3049
http://www.memra.com             -               E-mail: michael@memra.com