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

We don't export the technology.

[SupremoMan]

We just outsource the means of producing it en masse. Semantics count people!

11111111

[Chillintau]

Good thing there wasn't another attempt, otherwise the counter would've overflowed.

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.

255 defendants

[DancesWithBlowTorch]

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

The true number is actually much higher, but with all the technology going overseas, the feds have to do with 8bit registers.

Badabumm - disssssh. Thanks! I'll be here all week. Try the lamb.

How many of those exports

[overshoot]

were commodities readily available elsewhere but restricted, like standard cryptographic algorithms, from export from the USA -- even if they were originally imported?

Re:How many of those exports

[scrod98]

Not true - US Bureau of Industry and Security still requires that encryption software export is controlled (15CFR774). We have applied for and received several license exemptions, but still must report our exports of our software that includes blowfish twice per year, to the actual addresses each shipment is sent.

0xFFFF

[Forty Two Tenfold]

Good thing there wasn't another attempt, otherwise the counter would've overflowed.

WORD.

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?