John Gilmore wrote (a week or so back):

Re: REQUEST FOR COMMODITY JURISDICTION FOR: "Kerberos 900104 bones.tar.Z patchlevel 6" software program [...] I encourage people and companies who are interested in export issues to submit a commodity jurisdiction request for some software that you want to export, and go through the process. In public. The State Department and NSA don't publish their guidelines for what is exportable and what isn't, so the only way we-the-public are going to find out is by asking, and then telling each other.

Are these guidelines, which are undoubtedly written down *somewhere*, exempt from disclosure under FOIA? If not, then this might be good way to go; if the claim of exemption appears weak, it may be worth litigating. Getting actual disclosure of the guidelines may be worth quite a bit, since not only does it inform us-the-public about the rules, it can make it easier to sue the government for not abiding by its own rules (if it violates them). -- Michael C. Berch mcb@net.bio.net / mcb@postmodern.com