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.

  • 鳳凰院 凶真 (Hououin Kyouma)@sh.itjust.works
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    2 months ago

    Fun fact: They made encryption on Ham/GMRS radios illegal because they didn’t want the average citizenry to have access to secure off-grid comms without government spyware on networks that they control.

    Reject Smarphones, Return to Amateur Radios. Just modify some radios, add a raspberry pi to do enccyption on the voice before it gets transmitted.

    THEY CANT ARREST US ALL! (seriously tho, I haven’t heard of the FCC actually doing anything, unless you were jamming the airport radios or something crazy)

    • bigfondue@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      The primary reason is the FCC can’t tell if the encrypted transmissions are commercial or otherwise illegal. The amateur bands would be full of high frequency trading brokerages, drug traffickers, and spies.

    • GreenShimada@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Encryption using IP over HAM is still illegal - you can’t access Lemmy because it’s an HTTPS site, because we live in the 21st century.