From: jrochkin@cs.oberlin.edu (Jonathan Rochkind)
Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 13:16:33 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: "German service cuts Net access" (to Santa Cruz)
Message-ID: <ad31bae6080210042931@[132.162.233.188]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 1:47 AM 01/29/96, Felix Lee wrote:
>> Are you saying that, if I ran a bookstore, and accepted international
>> mail orders, I would have to screen every order to ensure I did not
>> ship something offensive to the German government?
>
>urrr.  yes?  anyone doing international shipping has to comply with
>customs regulations anyway.  this isn't really any different.  (except
>when telecom or broadcast media become involved.)
>
>(excuse me while I see if I can ship smallpox to germany.)
>--

If you violate customs regulations on the receiving end, all that's going
to happen is the book you sent gets confiscated.    Which is only bad for
the receiving party (in Germany), since you already have the money, which
is fine since it's reasonable to expect the receiving party in Germany to
know German customs regulations.  You, as shipper, certainly won't get
extradicted to Germany from Denmark or anywhere else.

Trying to ship smallpox to Germany might be another matter, of course.