Letter of the law

Anonymous anon at anon.efga.org
Fri Feb 13 10:19:47 PST 1998


>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







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