At 8:32 PM -0800 10/1/96, jim bell wrote:
An import restriction would be even less effective than the current export restrictions. With an import restriction, a person need merely receive a given piece of software in the mail from an "unknown" benefactor, software that (surprise!) would have been illegal to import. (the software doesn't even have to be mailed from outside the US, merely trucked in by a wetback and anonymously mailed by tossing it into the ubiquitous USnail PO Box.) Redistribution of this software would have to be legal, if for no other reason than nobody could prove it was imported illegally. Nobody outside the US would have any standing to sue for copyright violation, because they couldn't import it and sell it without restrictions.
They can of course outlaw possession and distribution of code not legal to import into the U.S., regardless of whether they can find out who imported it. Imagine your reasoning modified to cover a very relevant current law: Origninal: "Redistribution of this software would have to be legal, if for no other reason than nobody could prove it was imported illegally." Modified Version: "Redistribution of narcotics and other drugs would have to be legal, if for no other reason than nobody could prove they were imported illegally." --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."