At 6:19 AM 9/23/96, Matthew Gream wrote:
Hi there,
An anonymous opinion from inside the Defence Dept holds that electronic bits on a wire do not constitute goods, and as a result if you ship electronically, you are not subject to the regulations. If you ship a CD or floppy or other physical media containing software, you violate the regulations.
Watch out for those anonymous opinions; I received exactly the opposite opinion when I spoke to the Defence Signals Directorate about the issue (back in 1994) -- after specifically asking about a few hypothetical cases. Of course, either opinion may be correct, which is the real problem!
Cindy Cohn made the excellent point at the Bernstein hearing that the ITARS are so vague and overbroad that a professor cannot be sure if his lecture is violating the law because foreigners are in the audience (a la the Junger case). As she notes, nearly all college and postgraduate classes are heavily populated by non-U.S. citizens, and the ITARs specifically make illegal the propagation of certain items to non-U.S. citizens. (There is no exemption in the ITARs for university professors teaching their classes. If foreigners are in the classroom, and cryptographic or weapons-related knowledge is imparted, an ITAR violation has probably occurred.) Personally, I'd relish the opportunity to say to my class: "Now, the International Trafficking in Arms Regulations, the ITARs, make it a felony for me to disclose certain methods or techniques to non-U.S. citizens. Accordingly, in this class, I must insist that all non-U.S. citizens, or suspected Israelis, ragheads, Papists, or Marxists, illegal Mexicans, etc., leave the lecture hall immediately. All those remaining must present at least five forms of identification, dating back at least to 1978. Foreign-looking persons should provide at least seven forms of identification, including documentation that they are not in the U.S. illegally. Jew-looking or Jew-sounding names will be subjected to special scrutiny to ensure that they are not dual-citizens with the ITAR-restricted Zionist Entity. "Oh, and since classroom participation counts for 65% of your grade, those I exclude under the ITAR restrictions had better score 155% on the exams I let you into the classroom to take, else you'll flunk. Good luck, you fucking foreigners!" (Cindy Cohn pointed out to the court that their might also be 14th Amendment problems with enforcement of the ITARs with regard to teaching in universities.) --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."