Re: Exporting software doesn't mean exporting

[djw@pdcorp.com (Dan Weinstein)]

On Tue, 7 Nov 1995 14:52:33 +0100 (GMT+0100), you wrote:

>
>
>On Tue, 7 Nov 1995, Peter D. Junger wrote:
>
>> >From Section 120.17 of the ITAR which provides:
>> 
>>  _Export_ means:
>>  . . . .
>>  (4) Disclosing (including oral or visual disclosure) or transfering
>>  technical data to a foreign person, whether in the United States or
>>  abroad . . . .
>
>The ITAR is U.S.-Law. This only applies (by definition) to US-citizens
>or persons in the U.S.!
>
>I think it's a common mistake of many Americans that they believe
>creating law means creating law for the whole world!

The what U.S. law says and what U.S. officials can enforce are two
different things.  You are in violation of ITAR if you send crypto
software from Mexico to Europe over the INTERNET if it is routed
through the U.S..  Think of it like drugs being shipped through the
U.S., the drug lord that sent it throught is just as guilt under U.S.
law as the mule that is carrying it.  The problem is that ITAR was not
writen to take the current situation into consideration.  It is writen
to deal with physical equipment and concepts that only a small number
of people understand.  Given those perameters ITAR would work, but
given the current climate of readily available crypto software and
wide spread understanding of crypto technologies ITAR cannot do what
it was designed to do.

>
>> Go read the section that I quoted again.  Where is there an exception
>> for foreign persons who happen to be abroad?  
>
>It's inherent. You simply can't apply US-law to non-US-citizens outside
>the U.S.!  

Quite to the contrary, U.S. law applies whereever the U.S. can enforce
it.  Their are  many U.S. laws that the U.S. attempts to enforce
outside the U.S..  One example is that the U.S. law allows the
abduction of those who have murdered U.S. citizens outside the United
States.  This law is in place in an attempt to protect U.S. citizens
from terorism.  If you do not believe me just ask Manuel Noriega
(sp?).


Dan Weinstein
djw@pdcorp.com
http://www.earthlink.net/~danjw
PGP public key is available from my Home Page.
All opinions expressed above are mine.

"I understand by 'freedom of Spirit' something quite definite -
the unconditional will to say No, where it is dangerous to say
No.        
           Friedrich Nietzsche