From: hfinney@shell.portal.com (Hal Finney)
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 93 03:47:30 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Timing of Moby subpoena
Message-ID: <9309201606.AA24301@jobe.shell.portal.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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From: smb@research.att.com

> Ward posted a note that (in essence) asked for help in evading the ITARs.

Since Moby Crypto is, as I understand it, composed of material which is
generally available all over the world, it may not be necessary that it
be exported from the U.S. in order to exist in a foreign country.  One should
be careful about accusing others of conspiracy to violate the ITARs, even
qualifying it with "in essence".

> Face it -- if Ward *wanted* to generate a test
> case, he couldn't have done a much better job; a private note to the
> authorities could have been ``misfiled'', but an announcement to tens
> of thousands of readers around the world?  C'mon -- they may or may not
> be stupid, and they may or may not be paranoid, but their entire raison
> d'etre is to wield power, and Grady just slapped that authority in the
> face.  Spitting at your local traffic cop would have been a lot safer.

The note that Steve is referring to is presumably this.  Note the date:

> Newsgroups: talk.politics.crypto
> From: grady@netcom.com (Grady Ward)
> Subject: Want to drop-ship Moby Crypto?
> Message-ID: <gradyCDCqqr.MpC@netcom.com>
> Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1993 16:20:50 GMT
> 
> Is there anyone receiving this feed outside the
> United States who would like to act as my foreign
> drop-ship agent for Moby Crypto?
> [...]

I think the relative timing of this announcement and the subpoena makes
it questionable whether the subpoena was in response to this posting.
According to Ward's later post:

> Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk,sci.crypt,alt.security.pgp,talk.politics.crypto
> From: grady@netcom.com (Grady Ward)
> Subject: Re: *FLASH* Moby SUBPOENA served
> Message-ID: <gradyCDHKDC.3Lu@netcom.com>
> Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1993 06:51:11 GMT
> [...]
> At 10:30 PM EDT  Thursday, 16 Sept 1993 Theodore R. Siggins,
> special agent for the Department of Treasury, U.S.
> Customs Service office of enforcement for
> Austin, TX (512) 482-5502 served the following
> subpoena:

This is two days after Ward's message, which is pretty fast response
for law enforcement.  But this is the date of service.  The subpoena
had to be issued and signed before this.  Did that occur after Ward's
Sep 14 posting?  It's not 100% clear, but what the subpoena itself, as
posted by Grady, says is:

> This subpoena is issued on application of the United States of America
> Michael J. Yamaguchi
> United States Attorney
>  
> Assistant U.S. Attorney
> William P. Keane
> 280 S. First St., Suite 371
> San Jose, CA  95113
> (408) 291-7221
> s/a Robin Sterzer, Customs
> 93-1348(SJ) 93-1(SJ)
>  
> 9 September 1993

If Sep 9 is the date on which the subpoena was actually issued, this was
five days before Grady Ward's post which supposedly triggered the subpoena.
Unless the Feds are prescient, they must have been planning to subpoena
Austin Code Works about Moby Crypto, PGP, and RSA long before Ward's post.

Hal
hfinney@shell.portal.com