The problem is that the government refuses to publish the rules. They make people ask for approval for every piece of code that is exported. This gives them lots of wiggle room so that they can keep changing the rules in the face of technical, legal, or political innovation.
In the legal trade, this is what's called an unpromulgated (secret) law. It's a no-no in the philosophy of law, but a nation state can do whatever it wants and still call it "legal". At least our esteemed congress doesn't do retroactive legislation, like the 1KY reich did. Well, we only do tax hikes that way, anyway. We had a revolution to stop crap like in 1776, but we resurrected unpromulgated laws with the advent of the ICC at the end of the last century, and the IRS at the beginning of this one. It's encouraging to note that the ICC has finally been "sunset". Too bad we can't do the same for the IRS, and maybe even State Department. Maybe in some future world of instant full-sensorium telepresence, encrypted, of course... ;-). Cheers, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com) e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "Reality is not optional." --Thomas Sowell The NEW(!) e$ Home Page: http://thumper.vmeng.com/pub/rah/