The software was classed as munitions and one needed an arms dealer’s license to publish it, including online. The creator of PGP published the full source code as a book, as these are covered under first amendment rights.

  • InFerNo@lemmy.ml
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    2 days ago

    Nothing stops anyone from running a webserver without ssl, there might be an instance that does it

    • GreenShimada@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I know, the point is that you’re broadcasting over the radio that you’re encrypting the data over the one medium were it’s illegal to encrypt the data because the FCC thinks it’s still 1989 or whatever when it comes to amateur radio. So it’s not just that you’re doing something illegal, you’re using a registered call sign and a really loud, easily triangulatable signal to do it. It’s like putting a movie poster-sized sign on your fence that says “Rattlesnake venom for sale, inquire within.” It’s not a sustainable practice.

      Ultimately, the amateur radio crowd needs to get this law 47 CFR 97.113 changed to allow an exception for encrypted internet over radio and allow for modern communications standards. Personally, I expect that it would only take one House Rep willing to score any sort of win with rural voters for this to work right now.