I never suggested anything that I thought was illegal . . .

[KETTERING@SPIKE.llnl.gov (Brett 'Volleyball is my game' Kettering)]

From the article <7390@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> (David Kassover)

>In article <9E10893F111F400A5B@icdc.llnl.gov> KETTERING@SPIKE.llnl.gov (Brett 'Volleyball is my game' Kettering) writes:
>|About this mess of buying software and such at outrageously inflated prices
>|overseas.  Have the prospective foreign buyers thought of getting ahold of
>|someone they know and trust in the U.S., having them buy it cheaply here and
>|ship it to them?  If they are trusted friends it seems that some sort of
>|payment method, acceptable to both, could be worked out here.

>There's a word for that kind of activity.  "Smuggling" comes to
>mind.  This is not to say that it doesn't happen, or should or
>shouldn't happen.

To the best of my knowledge it is not illegal, nor is it "smuggling" to have
someone in another country send you legally obtained, noncontraband items and
send them to you via the postal system.  When I lived in Argentina, friends
sent me things all the time.  They simply declared the contents of the package
on an invoice, paid the postage, and sent them.  I did the same from Argentina
back to the U.S.

If this is, for some unknown reason, illegal then why did the postal officials
in both of these countries allow it to occur?  If it were not legal then the
officials were either ignorant of the law or just not paying attention to the
declaration of contents accompanying the packages.  I doubt that the officials
were ignorant of the law.

Does the mere fact that the foreign party will reimburse the purchaser make
this act illegal?  I would think not.

>There are also classes of goods for which the US shipper accepts
>responsibility for non-transferance to prohibited countries.

If the item listed on the contents invoice is prohibited to the destined
country then it is the responsibility of the postal officials to make this
known to the sender and not allow it to be sent.  In the case of the original
article the item was sold in the foreign country, so it must not be a 
prohibited country for the product.  There is no intent to hide the contents
of the package, only to provide it at a reasonable cost.

Brett Kettering