From: Hal <hfinney@shell.portal.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 94 08:31:41 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: On the crime bill and remailers
In-Reply-To: <199409200329.UAA07612@kaiwan.kaiwan.com>
Message-ID: <199409201531.IAA03350@jobe.shell.portal.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


SOLONg discusses the "scienter" requirement in various laws.  I believe
this refers to the legal requirement that you know you are breaking the
law in order to be breaking the law (so to speak).  The export restrictions
we discuss so much here also have this requirement.  If you drive across the
border with your pickup truck full of ammunition, the government has to
prove that you knew it was illegal to do so in order to convict you.

Presumably this implies that if you mail RIPEM to your buddy in England
you would only be breaking the law if you knew about the legal restrictions.
It would be interesting to see how the government goes about proving this
knowledge if they ever bring an ITAR case.

Does this also suggest that our discussions about the legalities of crypto
export are harmful because they could take away a possible defense of
ignorance on the part of some list reader who is the victim of an ITAR
prosecution?  Perhaps this is really a case where "ignorance is bliss."

Hal