Doesn't the act of taking it across the border, in the laptop, constitute an act of export??
From jkwilli2@unity.ncsu.edu Sat Feb 14 02:07:45 1998 X-Authentication-Warning: c00954-100lez.eos.ncsu.edu: jkwilli2 owned process doing -bs Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 04:27:29 -0500 (EST) From: Ken Williams <jkwilli2@unity.ncsu.edu> X-Sender: jkwilli2@c00954-100lez.eos.ncsu.edu To: cypherpunks@toad.com Subject: Re: Letter of the law X-Copyright: The contents of this message may not be reproduced in any form X-Copyright: (including Commercial use) unless specific permission is granted X-Copyright: by the author of the message. All requests must be in writing. X-Disclaimer: The contents of this email are for educational purposes only X-Disclaimer: and do not reflect the thoughts or opinions of either myself X-Disclaimer: or my employer and are not endorsed by sponsored by or provided X-Disclaimer: on behalf of North Carolina State University. MIME-Version: 1.0
On Fri, 13 Feb 1998, Anonymous wrote:
I'm in El Paso Texas... so close to the border I can see Old Mex outside my window as I write this.. I'm over there nearly every day for lunch ( I actually walk there from my house it's so close) If I write a crypto program on my laptop over there and ftp it to a web page I have on a server outside the US will I have avoided the foolish export regs?? Does anyone know of someone trying this before??
My guess is this: if it has the name of a US citizen in the copyright notice, it will be assumed to have been made in the US. if the morons even go after you. you still may have a plausable excuse if ever taken to court. after all, you "exported" youself, which is a perfectly legal thing to take out of the country, and "yourself" accidentally spewed a copy of something that couldn't cross the border. I don't think anybody has tried this and been challenged. then again, a lot of us don't have the opportunity. It's easier to ask forgivness than permission... Another easier excuse would be to publish it freely in hardcopy form, and just "happen" to have somebody end up "typing" in your source code abroad, making a legit international copy... -Anon2
i would think that the big question here, legally, is whether or not you would be ustilizing a US ISP and/or cellular provider to make the upload of the crypto program to the foreign server via ftp. as long as all the packets stay outside of US borders, in other words, as long as you don't use a US ISP and cellular provider, then i don't see how you would be violating any laws in this case.
Regards,
TATTOOMAN
Bob De Witt, rdew@el.nec.com The views expressed herein are my own, and are not attributable to any other source, be it employer, friend or foe.