Letter of the law

[Ken Williams]

On Tue, 17 Feb 1998, Bob De Witt wrote:

>Doesn't the act of taking it across the border, in the laptop, constitute
>an act of export??

well, yes, of course.  that was taken for granted in my comments.
likewise, if you go to a tattoo parlor and get the infamous 4 line
crypto-sig tattooed on your ass, then you are classified as a munition,
and you cannot leave the US.

the only relevant question here regards the odds that a US Customs officer
is going to want you to drop your drawers and bend over...
;-)

ken 

>> >>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 
>> 
>> http://152.7.11.38/~tattooman/
>> 
>Bob De Witt,
>rdew at el.nec.com
>The views expressed herein are my own,
>and are not attributable to any other
>source, be it employer, friend or foe.
> 
>

TATTOOMAN

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