Zimmermann says that Disney was hampered when it was negotiating over EuroDisney in France because the French government read its unencrypted e-mail back to the United States and learned the company's negotiating strategy. Disney's problem shows that the U.S. government's interference with cryptography can harm anyone, not just political activists or tax evaders. The law banning export of cryptography should be repealed forthwith. Continuation of the ban is silly. PGP is based on published principles.
Foreigners can get that information in a library.
The Internet has no national boundaries. It embodies the classical-liberal ideal of the free movement of goods and ideas. I days when people could travel the world without passports. But today it is an instance of the spontaneous, decentralized free market that no one person or group can control. Government efforts to stifle cryptography are a last, desperate attempt to maintain a grip on something that is intrinsically uncontrollable.