Subject: Re: security in the free world
To: None <fox@CS.McGill.CA, rickb@iaw.on.ca, tech-security@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Ross Harvey <ross@teraflop.com>
List: tech-security
Date: 03/12/1997 10:45:00
  [ regarding getting around export laws via US->Canada->World route ]

It's not quite so simple. I suppose if the whole scheme were executed
in Canada involving only Canadians, then only Candadian law would
apply, and I don't know anything about that.

But I'm sorry to say, if in the USA you KNOW that the ultimate
destination is illegal, then you aren't off the hook just because you
hopped it over a legal fence and someone else took it on its second
hop.  In fact, almost all export busts involve a purely and totally
legal first hop.  (There was a hilarious one I dimly recall that had, I
think, Casper W. Weinberger standing beside a bunch of Vaxen seized in
Sweden supposedly destined for the USSR.)

Sorry, it's your intent or the ultimate destination that matters,
believe it or not. Despite all the hysteria over "liberal" judges and
all the ignorant outrage over "criminals having rights", the fact of
the matter is that almost everyone who ends up in court is convicted.

In fact, you are supposed to KNOW the ultimate destination and purpose,
so just NOT KNOWING what the destination is isn't even a defense.

So this is all really stupid, I know. This is technology available
around the world, and there may well be a way to finesse it. But the
law isn't applied like a mathematical function and a technicality
doesn't really save you, it just makes a good straw man for
lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the-key political speaches.