Transmission of Crypto material and ITAR

Dear All,

I have a question regarding the impossible enforcement of ITAR/EAR:
Naturally I cannot download crypto software from the US, but most of these
sites have mirrors in other countries, such as the UK for PGP, and sweden
and finland for lots of things.

However, with the way that information is routed throughout the internet
from these sites, whenever I, in Australia, request packets containing this
data from the UK etc, it invariably passes through the US from coast to
coast! Therefore, if ITAR/EAR tries to govern that, aren't they really
trying to enforce something totally unenforcable? Surely they cannot expect
all gateways operated by, say, Sprint and MCI to packet sniff 'n' search? 

Can anyone tell me what the ruling is with regards to this?

Yours Sincerely,

Benjamin Grosman

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  Benjamin Grosman - Programmer, Magna Data Internet Solutions
  Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
                  [Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound.]
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Unless someone in the U.S. is willing to go to the effort of capturing all
of the packets that comprise the crypto software package as they pass
through various MCI, Sprint, etc. networks (which is probably illegal in
itself, in most cases), on their way from the UK to your site in Australia
and then reassembling them in the U.S. into something that is in violation
of the export regulations, what difference does the path of the individual
packets make?

At 01:15 PM 2/13/97 -0800, you wrote:
>Dear All,
>
>I have a question regarding the impossible enforcement of ITAR/EAR:
>Naturally I cannot download crypto software from the US, but most of these
>sites have mirrors in other countries, such as the UK for PGP, and sweden
>and finland for lots of things.
>
>However, with the way that information is routed throughout the internet
>from these sites, whenever I, in Australia, request packets containing this
>data from the UK etc, it invariably passes through the US from coast to
>coast! Therefore, if ITAR/EAR tries to govern that, aren't they really
>trying to enforce something totally unenforcable? Surely they cannot expect
>all gateways operated by, say, Sprint and MCI to packet sniff 'n' search? 
>
>Can anyone tell me what the ruling is with regards to this?
>
>Yours Sincerely,
>
>Benjamin Grosman
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------
>  Benjamin Grosman - Programmer, Magna Data Internet Solutions
>  Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
>                  [Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound.]
>----------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>