On Mon, 26 Aug 2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> There is also the very dicey issue of exporting 'weapons technology',
> which would have the Feds shutting all of us down. Anything we
> post will likely be considered export...
Export regulations do not override the Bill Of Rights -- freedom of speech
and of the press remain protected. The FreeS/WAN project, which I was
part of for several years, had professional legal advice on such matters
(if you thought rocketry was a sensitive subject, well, encryption
technology is worse...). The bottom line: postings to *open* mailing
lists (lists anyone can join) are public speech and thus have full
Constitutional protection.
That's also roughly what Tim Pleasant told a bunch of us at Space Access 99:
as long as it's public information, arms control does not get involved.
The one possible snag is the question of whether everything being sent
is "speech". The export bureaucrats have tried to define "speech" as
narrowly as possible; in particular, there is a legal battle still in
progress (last I heard) about whether encryption-software source code is
speech. But that case is complicated by the fact that programs are meant
to be intelligible to computers; the central argument in the court case is
over whether source code is meant for a human audience too. I doubt that
such a question can be raised over something that's basically a picture.
I confess I would say that more firmly if a TurboCAD picture could be
printed (not necessarily modified) by software that was free or widely
distributed. (Maybe it can be; I haven't investigated.)
If I were sending around a drawing for comment, I would consider using
PostScript instead. Most everybody can print it, most any graphics
software can generate it. It's effectively read-only, but whether that
matters depends on what you're doing with it.
Henry Spencer
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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