legality of forwarded packets (was: PING packets illegal?)

["Douglas B. Renner" <dougr@skypoint-gw.globelle.com>]

> >> that ...... but if those ping packets contained little pieces of something
> >> like PGP ...... would the host being pinged be breaking the law? Would
> 
[zap!]
> 
> > the destination are violating the law.  Since it is impossible to monitor the
> > contents of every packet being transmitted over a network, I seriously doubt
> > that any intermediate host would be considered to be in violation of ITAR.

On an ecouraging note, I recall a Packet Radio case where someone posted 
what amounted to an advertisement for a 1-900 service.  Commercial 
advertisements being prohibited on all Ham Radio, the FCC moved to 
censure ALL of the dozen-or-so packet stations which had automatically 
forwarded the offending message.

Great alarm was raised in the packet community, and I believe it was the 
ARRL which enlightened the FCC that enforcement in such a manner would 
destroy packet radio by requiring each message to be manually inspected 
prior to retransmission - an obvious impracticality.  (Even though the 
letter of the law may have permitted such a strict enforcement by the FCC.)

In the end, only the ORIGINATOR of the message was "punished."

-Doug