From: Ken Williams <jkwilli2@unity.ncsu.edu>
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 01:27:34 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Letter of the law
In-Reply-To: <fa220db83a0df3a45d5af0ba8b2b136c@anon.efga.org>
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.96.980214042034.12159B-100000@c00954-100lez.eos.ncsu.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Fri, 13 Feb 1998, Anonymous wrote:

>>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/