US Company Fined for Exporting Math.
We ain't got enough Math in the US to be sending it abroad!
We ain't got enough Math in the US to be sending it abroad!
Note: I'm not suggesting that the cryptography export restrictions are useful or make any sense it all. They don't, as far as I can tell. I'm just trying to get some discussion going as to whether reductionist arguments like "exporting math" make sense.
Encryption algorithms are math, theory, information. They can be reproduced, copied, and transmitted at-will, for no cost.
If the difference is still non-obvious, google around for instructions to make ricin. Easy to find, and it's not illegal to share that information. Why should it be illegal to share any other data? And how could one reasonably expect to enforce it?
A better analogy would be someone exporting a piece of paper with the reactions involved in a chemical weapon on it, or the formulas that describe where a missile will land given certain parameters.
This.