A Missive From: David Kovar (kovar@nda.com)
What is the connection between crypto and bagpipes? Well crypto is regarded as an armament by the US ITAR regulations. Later this month a British court is to rule as to whether bagpipes are still classified as "instruments of war"! The story is in today's Times newspaper (The British one) It seems that a piper is being taken to court for practising on Hampstead Heath, which has a bye-law forbidding music. Mr Brooks, the piper, has denied the charge, citing a case in 1746, where bagpipes were declared to be instruments of war, not musical instruments, and a subsequent Act of Parliament which specifically stated that they were weapons. He claims he wasn't playing a musical instrument, but practising with a weapon!
The imagination boggles if his claim is successful! Will it be possible to sue pipers for assault with a deadly weapon? Will airports be equipped with bagpipe detectors?
David Wadsworth | Wohin der Weg? Kein Weg! dwadsw@etna.demon.co.uk | Ins Unbetretene. (Faust)
Vinnie Moscaritolo ------------------ "friends come and friends go..but enemies accumulate." http://www.vmeng.com/vinnie/ Fingerprint: 4FA3298150E404F2782501876EA2146A