From: rdew@el.nec.com (Bob De Witt)
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 10:46:53 -0800 (PST)
To: jkwilli2@unity.ncsu.edu
Subject: Re: Letter of the law
Message-ID: <199802171845.KAA11835@yginsburg.el.nec.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Doesn't the act of taking it across the border, in the laptop, constitute
an act of export??

> From jkwilli2@unity.ncsu.edu Sat Feb 14 02:07:45 1998
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> Date: Sat, 14 Feb 1998 04:27:29 -0500 (EST)
> From: Ken Williams <jkwilli2@unity.ncsu.edu>
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> To: cypherpunks@toad.com
> Subject: Re: Letter of the law
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> 
> 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/
> 
Bob De Witt,
rdew@el.nec.com
The views expressed herein are my own,
and are not attributable to any other
source, be it employer, friend or foe.