Can the US Stop the Illegal Export of Its Technology?

coondoggie writes "Maybe people are more desperate or maybe there's just too much opportunity to make a quick buck but whatever the excuse, attempts to illegally export technology from the US has gone through the roof. The Department of Justice this week said it has placed criminal charges or convictions against more than 255 defendants in the past two fiscal years — 145 in 2008 and 110 in 2007. That 255 number represents more than a six-fold increase from fiscal year 2005, when the DOJ said about 40 individuals or companies were convicted of over 100 criminal violations of export control laws."

Comments

but...

[JustNiz]

Isn't it more than a bit arrogant and unrealistic to think the US is the only country with these technologies?
I mean, I know many Americans like to believe the US invented absolutely everything and are ahead of everyone else technologically, but in fact they really didn't and aren't.

And the Answer Is

[PingPongBoy]

Yes.

Of course, by legalizing it.

Shocking

[kipin]

Keep adding additional rules, regulations and laws and people tend to start breaking more laws since more of them exist to break.

Is it for real?

[spaceyhackerlady]

Is this spike for real, or is it the result of increased enforcement efforts?

...laura

What about the net import in technical expertise ?

[giorgist]

The cost of educating a person is very high.
What of the net import in technical expertise ?
Often some of the very best students go to US, and end up staying and doing high end re-search.
The US didn't have to pay to feed and bring up this person. If this person is 1 in 100,
the US didn't have to pay and feed and educate 100 people and selectively keep only the best one without having to bother
with the rest.

I would say that the US is getting the good end of the deal

G

Most of thist stuff has commercial uses

[Animats]

Most of the stuff the US is still export-controlling either has commercial uses or non-US sources. If you look at the indictments, the big one was about someone exporting carbon fibre materials to the China Space Agency. Why is the US trying to stop that? There's some noise about how carbon fibre might be somehow used to enrich uranium. China already has its own enrichment plants, nuclear weapons, and nuclear reactors. They don't need a centrifuge enrichment plant, except maybe for cost reduction. The US tries, for some reason, to slow down China's space program by refusing to export certain space-related items. Not that it makes much difference; the Chinese space program seems to be doing just fine.

It's hard to think of anything in computing that you can't get outside the US. Nor is there any military computing application that really requires more compute power that you couldn't put together from stuff you could mail order from Taiwan or China.

Arms control and technology export control are different issues. Arms control is intended to make it harder for people we don't like to get firepower in bulk. It's not about the underlying technology; it's about production. Most of the cases mentioned are pure arms control issues.

Stop giving the traitors presidential pardons

[quenda]

That might help.

Which was the last US government that didn't illegally export arms?

I am European working for a US comany in Canada

[quax]

Recently I was forced to sit through an online training with regards to US export controls. The regulations are insane. I came away wondering why any high tech company would want to incorporate in the US with these kind of laws on the book. For instance you could be in violation if you show foreign visitors around your company and they get a fleeting look at a white-board that discusses a strong encryption algorithm. Same thing if you discuss such a "sensitive" technology on the phone with a foreigner. Absolutely and totally nuts.

You can't stop this problem

[EmbeddedJanitor]

This is as old as the hills. When I lived in apartheid South Africa in the 1980s the sanctions made it illegal to export various chips to South Africa. They still got there disguised as legal electronic components. The middle men made a killing. Limiting availability might have made USA etc voters happy, but all that really happened was that the South African military industry got a shot in the arm, building its own stuff and selling it to other willing customers. Same deal for the South African nuclear program.

Nothing much has changed. Smaller stuff like special electronics can be easily hidden inside perfectly legal consumer electronic devices and the $8/hr TSA guy working at the airport will never know the difference. Unless you completely seal borders (??how??) and cut off all tourism etc, you're just doing it for show.