Pull a Zimmermann [LWN.net]

Pull a Zimmermann

Posted Mar 12, 2026 4:09 UTC (Thu) by PeeWee (subscriber, #175777)
Parent article: California's Digital Age Assurance Act and Linux distributions

I think distros should just do as Phil Zimmermann did, when PGP was deemed "weapons-grade encryption" and thus verboten - Jawohl! - from being exported, i.e. publish the source code - free speech and all -, which they do already anyway, for export to problematic jurisdictions and try to restrict downloads of the compiled version in those areas, just hard enough to maintain plausible deniability. Thus they don't provide an actual working OS and someone running it must have compiled it from source; "what're ya gonna do, officer?" So the user is the actual OS provider. Do educate them on the legal ramifications and lean back. Or just cripple it enough to render it inoperable, also much like those "export" versions of "weapons-grade crypto", which capped key size at 56 bits, IIRC. It's an easy enough fix for the end user, if they were to actually go the extra mile, instead of just VPNing their way to the real download. "But what are we supposed to do about that, officer? For all we knew they were sitting in that internet café over there, when they downloaded it."

I keep being amazed at the seemingly ever increasing gullibility of the simple minds in politics. One cannot force DRM in FOSS, because that's what it is: Digital Restrictions Management, just wearing it's shining armor of righteousness today. They may as well just do a popup asking if the person at the helm is really, really old enough and, to make extra sure, make them swear they are being truthful, so help them Saint IGNUcius!1!!

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Pull a Zimmermann

Posted Mar 12, 2026 12:31 UTC (Thu) by chris_se (subscriber, #99706) [Link]

> I think distros should just do as Phil Zimmermann did, when PGP was deemed "weapons-grade encryption"

While I think this was a fantastic stunt back then, you do realize that this was never actually tested in court? The investigation against Zimmermann was dropped in 1996 without this having ever gone to court. (The same year the executive order was signed that started the process of lifting most restrictions - though I don't know off the top of my head which of these came first.) And even if the book thing had held up in court, you'd still have the issue that PGP was downloaded from US servers from users outside of the US _before_ the book with the PGP source code was printed. Sure, the book showed the absurdity of trying to have this kind of government control, and it was fantastic politics, but in a court of law Zimmermann could still easily have lost just because of the previous downloads where he hadn't yet printed the book.