NSA Lawyers Believe ITARs Would be Overturned if Tested in Court

[jim bell]

At 02:25 AM 7/22/96 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote:

>(Not all of them, presumably. Shipment of hardware ("arms") would likely
>not be affected. But the ITARs that stop the spread of knowledge, published
>papers, and speech (such as speaking where a foreigner can hear!) would
>likely be overturned.)
>--Tim May

Which raises an interesting question:  Why aren't they (still) restricting 
PC-type computers for export?  While it might not appear to make a great 
deal of sense either, a PC is just as much a tool for encryption as the 
software which runs on it.  And it's obvious that given the two scenarios 
below:

1.  You have a $1000 computer and no (freebie) software yet.

or

2.  You have freebie software and no $1000 computer.


You're closer ($) to being able to do encryption with the former set of 
equipment.  And, of course, nobody's under the illusion that the government 
can keep the software bottled up, but they'd at least have a prayer keeping 
most 486 and Pentium-based computers from being exported.

I don't mean to give the idiots any ideas, and it's too late anyway, but...



Jim Bell
jimbell at pacifier.com