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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."
were commodities readily available elsewhere but restricted, like standard cryptographic algorithms, from export from the USA -- even if they were originally imported?
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
as it already caused famines in Africa
First of all, I don't think it's ever been used commercially - much less "caused a famine".
Second of all, how is it different from selling standard hybrid seeds, where most of the offspring is junk anyway?
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
I'm going to have to go with AC there. They're not just talking about software. They're talking about physical pieces of military hardware being stolen. And in the case of software, it's military software to run that hardware. If you think it would help to make stealing legal, I wouldn't mind visiting your house to see what you've got that's worth taking. ;-)
as someone on the other side (us citizen working on ITAR restricted technologies / programs that _require_ collaborating with foreign nationals), i can vouch for just how massive a pain-in-the-ass ITAR is:
i can't talk to foreign national colleagues about anything other than the weather.
i can't deal with foreign vendors.
i can't buy parts from foreign companies unless we have import licenses on file.
i can't get support without first having to filter all questions through a company export officer.
i can't ship equipment for repair if it has to leave the us (novatel, i'm looking at *you*)
i can't share interface definitions or software process documents without an export license.
really, the restrictions verge on the absurd, especially when you consider that the papers describing most of the interesting technologies that i work on are published in international journals and freely available, often themselves as a result of gov't funded research.
Huh? Whoever said the goal was to get people to stop using drugs? The goal is to end the violence, save the huge taxpayer cost, and stop the other dangers (such as cutting coke with rat poison), not to get people to stop.