re what would happen if export restrictions violated in article apr yuma acns colostate edu holland cs colostate edu douglas craig holland writes ok i heard a lot of talk about the nsa s infamous control over encryption export through the itar here s a question say i develop this great new encryption system and i want to sell my software worldwide the thought police then come in and say this algorithm is a threat to national security you will not be permitted to export it at this point what kind of trouble could i get into if i ignored the itar and sold my program to international customers anyway first of all it s not the thought police it s the export police if you move overseas with your great thoughts in your head write the software there and then sell it the us thought police probably can t do too much about it though you might want to check with your lawyer first however if you write the program here and sell it to furriners you are now an international arms dealer and can get thrown in the clink for many years especially if they decide you d be a good example and cuban drug dealers and fanatic middle eastern terrorists buy your stuff definitions of public domain are different for itar purposes so if you ve got a good enough lawyer who ll do your case for free after they ve confiscated everything you own as evidence you might win but nobody wants to go first since the stakes are quite high pray for peace bill bill stewart wcs anchor att com at t bell labs m holmdel nj no i m from new jersey i only work in cyberspace white house commect line fax
