PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Daniel J. Bernstein, press-20031015@box.cr.yp.to


CRYPTO CASE ON INDEFINITE HOLD

Chicago, 15 October 2003 - The longest-running court case against the
government's encryption regulations has come to an end, for now.

The regulations were challenged by Daniel J. Bernstein, a professor of
mathematics, statistics, and computer science at the University of
Illinois at Chicago. Bernstein filed his lawsuit in February 1995 and 
won four court decisions against the constitutionality of the
government's previous regulations.

In an October 2002 court hearing on the current encryption regulations,
Department of Justice attorney Tony Coppolino told the court that the
government would not enforce several portions of the regulations.

``I can assure you that the regulatory authority does not want
[researchers who are collaborating at conferences] sending us an e-mail
every time they change something in an algorithm,'' Coppolino told the
court. Coppolino also said that commmercial book publishers and
assembly-language publishers did not need to obtain licenses.

As observers predicted after the hearing, Chief Judge Marilyn Hall Patel
of the United States District Court for the Northern District of
California relied on the government's promises and dismissed Bernstein's
case without deciding the constitutionality of the current regulations.

``If and when there is a concrete threat of enforcement against
Bernstein for a specific activity, Bernstein may return for judicial
resolution of that dispute,'' Patel wrote, after citing Coppolino's
``repeated assurances that Bernstein is not prohibited from engaging in
his activities.''

``I hope the government sticks to its promises and leaves me alone,''
Bernstein said in a statement today acknowledging Patel's decision.
``But if they change their mind and start harassing Internet-security
researchers, I'll be back.''

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