At 08:09 PM 10/4/96 +0000, The Deviant wrote:
On Thu, 3 Oct 1996, Black Unicorn wrote: [...]
"A launch vehicle or payload shall not, by reason of the launching of such vehicle, be considered an export for purposes of this subchapter."
Focus on "by reason of launching of such vehicle,"
Launching a vehicle alone is not export. It takes more than launch to make it an export. More than the launching is not much. [...] -- I hate lightning - finger for public key - Vote Monarchist unicorn@schloss.li
So.. if I were to take PGP, put it on a floppy disk, tape it to a model rocket, and launch it across the mexican border, that's not exporting it (although the FAA might complain)?
That's _my_ interpretation. I look at it this way: Missile launches can 1. Return to the country of origin. 2. Splash down in International waters. 3. land on foreign soil. 4. Orbit for awhile and land "somewhere." 5. Orbit essentially forever. 6. Go somewhere in space other than an earth orbit. All this stuff is obvious to the people who wrote the regulation. In addition, it is not necessarily certain which of these outcomes will occur in any given launch. The terminology in the rule above does not distinguish any of these outcomes. In the absense of further clarification, it is logical to conclude that which particular route the missile subsequently takes is irrelevant to the applicability of the exception. This is particularly true, since the writers of that regulation were free to add clarification should they have chosen to do so. Further, that they DIDN'T "clarify" is logical, because if the outcome of any given missile may be uncertain, and assuming that this regulation was written as a mutual-suck-up maneuver between government and industry, it is reasonable to assume that the regulation would be interpretated to immunize the launcher regardless of the launch's outcome. One can reasonably suppose that Rockwell wouldn't want to be declared in violation of ITAR simply because the second stage of a rocket failed and dropped a crypto-carrying satellite onto China. Jim Bell jimbell@pacifier.com