From: "Peter D. Junger" <junger@pdj2-ra.F-REMOTE.CWRU.Edu>
Date: Fri, 27 Oct 1995 10:44:45 +0800
To: Cypherpunks <jsw@netscape.com>
Subject: Re: CJR returned to sender
In-Reply-To: <308FBACB.581A@netscape.com>
Message-ID: <m0t8aTG-0004JWC@pdj2-ra.F-REMOTE.CWRU.Edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Jeff Weinstein writes:

:   The ITARs are currently keeping us(Netscape) from distributing
: our US-only products to people within the United States.  We have
: asked for clarification from the government about network distribution,
: such as how much verification of location and citizenship of the
: recipient we must do, and have yet to receive a response.  That
: makes it more than just an export issue, at least for us.
: 
: 	--Jeff
: 
: -- 
: Jeff Weinstein - Electronic Munitions Specialist
: Netscape Communication Corporation
: jsw@netscape.com - http://home.netscape.com/people/jsw
: Any opinions expressed above are mine.

Don't hold your breath.  I just had a chat with the NSA person at the
Office of Defense Trade Controls who is supposed to answer all
questions about the export of cryptography and she took the position
that whether posting materials on a server is an export ``is an
interesting question.''  I specifically asked her if her office had
come up with the rigamarole that some servers use to make sure you are
a citizen and then give you an address that expires faster than I can
type where one can get the cryptographic software.  She denied that
that rigamarole was invented or approved by her office; and said that
it was an interesting question, not only for cryptography, whether a
server on the internet was a ``point of export.''  She told me that as
a law professor I would be interested in that question.  (I think that
the implication was that someone really in business would be terribly
frustrated.)

Of course, this is just my impression of a conversation that was not
really directed to any specific issues.  She did tell me thoughh that
since cryptographic software does the same thing as cryptographic
hardware, such software was treated as hardware.  I asked where the
regulations said that, and she never was able to give me a direct
citation to anything in the regs.

I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Ciao,
Peter
--
Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland, OH
Internet:  junger@pdj2-ra.f-remote.cwru.edu    junger@samsara.law.cwru.edu