Attila@primenet.com said:
On Thu, 23 Nov 1995, jim bell wrote:
I very much agree with the direction you appear to be headed in. It seems to me that Netscape should have no problem devising some sort of scenario in which such a program eventually gets onto the nets, but in a way that is squeaky clean, at least for THEM.
In addition, why should they even need to write the encrytion part of their software IN the US? It occurs to me that one way to do this might be to send one of their programmers to a conveniently-located place, such as Vancouver BC , Montreal Canada, or a few other nearby places, with a great deal of fanfare, and tell him to "write some crypto." He does, and brings it back into the US with him, leaving a copy of it "outside" the country for international distribution.
<attila sez> I think they have that one covered --not only is it violation of ITAR's intent to send a programmer out of the U.S.
Well, don't assume that because something's a "violation of ITAR's INTENT" it is actually a violation of ITAR. It can't be assumed that ITAR is _perfect_: That it actually prohibits every activity the government that wrote it didn't like. , but is
illegal to hire a foreign national to program for your non-U.S. products.
Sure about this?!?
the test is going to be with someone like Sun who "bought" a group of Russian crypto programmers and left them in Russia. Now, the problem with ITAR is that if you import that code, you can not then export the code since it is now covered by ITAR.
I didn't say that the code would ever be "re-exported": A copy would be brought into the US for domestic use, and everyone else outside the border would get their own copy from an outside server.
secondly, it appears there is a move afoot to make it an ITAR violation to hire the foreign nationals to circumvent ITAR --basically, the Feds want to stop cryptography _everywhere_, including telling Russians they can not work for U.S. companies! Just where do they think they are getting off?
It is for this kind of problem that I "invented" my concept of "Assassination Politics": If everybody pissed off at this situation was willing to donate $10 to a fund to reward the deaths of a few government officials responsible for ITAR, I can well imagine that this would shake them up a bit.