The US government has further relaxed encryption product export rules, but a key New Zealand developer in the area doesn't think the changes will have much short-term effect.
The US has removed the previous 30-day waiting period and the distinction between government and non-government users for the EU and countries such as New Zealand and Australia. It also allows exporters to self-classify controlled encryption products.
RPK NZ general manager Paul Osborne says export licences still have to be applied for for "binary" applications, though the process is "getting easier and easier".
The key issue is source code development, he says, all of which of RPK's is still done outside the US.
"What is still absolutely transparent to everybody in this business is that the red tape that was always there is still there. It's just that now, in principle, you've got a legal hope of actually getting through it."
RPK, which was started by American Kiwi Bill Raike, developed the InvisiMail email application and the Encryptonite encryption engine. The company, the US side of which earlier this year signed a deal with streaming media giant RealNetworks, is to concentrate on internet media delivery, says Osborne.
RPK is looking at embedding encryption in "small computing devices which are not PCs" such as cameras, PDAs and set-top boxes.
"We have now fairly long target list of companies," says Osborne.