Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ncrlnk!ncrcae!hubcap!gatech!uflorida!mailrus!eecae!cps3xx!rang
From: rang@cpsin3.cps.msu.edu (Anton Rang)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: USSR International Computer Club (was: Information on the ICC)
Message-ID: <1560@cps3xx.UUCP>
Date: 18 Jan 89 23:40:35 GMT
References: <10127@well.UUCP> <1315@orion.cf.uci.edu> <810@afit-ab.arpa> <10870@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU> <824@afit-ab.arpa>
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Reply-To: rang@cpswh.cps.msu.edu (Anton Rang)
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Organization: Michigan State University, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 45
In-reply-to: wbralick@afit-ab.arpa's message of 18 Jan 89 19:01:09 GMT

In article <824@afit-ab.arpa> wbralick@afit-ab.arpa (William A. Bralick) writes:

>Once again, how do you prevent object and source code from being exported
>to the Soviet Union?  This is export-controlled technology.  Anything
>that can be done to raise the Soviet's cost of acquiring said technology
>is a good thing.  The only exception is that if the government decides 
>that the Soviet Union should have certain technology, or free access to
>technology in general, then the formation of a group can be done in
>accordance with USENET rules.

  First, I'd like to say that I disagree with one of the premises in
the above statement.  That out of the way...the problem of controlling
technology transfer belongs to the government, not the net.  If I mail
a package to the U.S.S.R., the government will presumably check that
it doesn't have anything which is sensitive in it.  If I give it to a
friend in, say, Nicaragua, the U.S. government wouldn't see it.  But
that's a government problem--I'm not prevented from mailing packages
to the U.S.S.R. just because they *might* contain sensitive data.

>What I am trying to say is that this is not an issue for the USENET 
>community to decide ... this is a foreign policy issue which is made 
>by the federal government.  What is the federal policy?  I argue that 
>it is embodied in the export restrictions and until these are changed, 
>the USENET community does not have the right to vote to include such a 
>group.

  Umm, last I checked USENET was not a United States-only system.  If
somebody in, say, England wants to set up a connection to the
U.S.S.R., is the US going to stop them?  How?  (Heck, somebody may
have a USENET connection over there right now--do *you* know where
every computer on USENET is?)
  If the government is worried about this, they could monitor overseas
links.  Or maybe a solution would be to have a single system hung off
the backbone which will serve *only* as a gateway to a single machine
in the U.S.S.R.  It could even be run by the government.  (Creating a
newsgroup called comp.icc, incidentally, isn't the issue here--the
issue is connecting USENET to the U.S.S.R., no matter how the
connection is made).

		Anton

+---------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| Anton Rang (grad student) | "UNIX: Just Say No!"   | "Do worry...be SAD!" |
| Michigan State University | rang@cpswh.cps.msu.edu |                      |
+---------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+