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From: mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu (Mike Feldman)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada
Subject: Re: Export of Ada compilers
Message-ID: <1851@sparko.gwu.edu>
Date: 8 May 90 21:01:18 GMT
References: <9B05573732FF4013B5@icdc.llnl.gov> <7463@crdgw1.crd.ge.com>
Reply-To: mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu ()
Organization: The George Washington University, Washington D.C.
List-Id: <comp.lang.ada>

In article <7463@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> kassover@jupiter.crd.ge.com (David Kassover) writes:
>
>Secondly, if I ship something from USA to country X, that it is
>perfectly legal to ship to X, and then the recipient in
>X ships it to some other place Y, which may be perfectly legal
>to ship to from X, but not from USA to Y, the shipper from USA to
>X *may* have some liability.
>
There seem to be a couple of issues here. Recently I purchased a copy of
Turbo Pascal 5.5 from a major mail-order house. On the box there was a
prominent label which said "NOT FOR EXPORT! For use in the U.S. and
Canada only!" As far as I could tell, this had no legal strength and
was just put there so _Borland_ could control export through its 
designated agents overseas. If the mail-order house sent it outside
the U.S. and Canada, conceivably it would be violating a resale agreement
it had with Borland, so Borland could sue for breach of contract. But
it's not _illegal_ as far as I can tell, right?

Now suppose I resell the software to my friend in country Y. I am
normally allowed to resell software, since the license usually gives me
that right (as long as I delete my own copy, of course...). What laws
am I breaking? 

Suppose I just buy it in Egghead Software and move to France, 
taking it with me? 

Suppose I get tired of it and sell it to a friend in France? 

Suppose I _give_ it to my friend in France?

So much for Turbo Pascal. How about Ada? Certain Ada technology is
export-controlled in the sense that it isn't supposed to land behind
what we used to call the Iron Curtain. Since Meridian has an agent in the UK
who is legally selling the compiler there, it obviously isn't illegal to
sell it in the European Community. What is stopping me, then, from sending
a copy there myself? I buy it, I leave it shrink-wrapped, I ship it out
with full disclosure on the forms. I may be undermining Meridian's agent
over there, which of course hurts their business purpose, but am I breaking
the law? I doubt it.

Any software lawyers out there in Ada land?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prof. Michael Feldman
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The George Washington University
Washington, DC 20052
+1-202-994-5253
mfeldman@seas.gwu.edu
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