Questions from the Soviets about UNIX

[Charles Marslett]

In article <8550 at alice.UUCP>, debra at alice.UUCP (Paul De Bra) writes:
> Communicating with the USSR (and other communist countries) may be somewhat
> difficult because of the danger of "sensitive" information being send to
> countries that are not supposed to have access to that information.
> 
> As far as I know Usenet does not officially have a status of a mail carrier
> like the post office. If you send a letter with classified information to
> the USSR the post office cannot be held responsible, but if you post a message
> in a Usenet newsgroup that is broadcast to the USSR (assuming we would get
> Usenet news readers in the USSR) it is feasible that Usenet can be held
> responsible.

The last time I had a security clearance (several years ago) the real
limits of distribution of any kind of sensitive information fell into
three categories:  the US and nowhere else, NATO countries, and the rest
of the world.

Actually there was a fourth category: North Korea, North Vietman, Cuba
and perhaps East Germany(?) -- anyway, it did not include either China
or the Soviet Union.

What that means, as far as the net's liability, is that anything that gets
to Switzerland (or Sweden, India or Australia) is just as much a liability
as if it were sent directly to Moscow).  That is in reference to legal
liability -- if the message were addressed to vlad!kgbvax!kremlin!moscva!ussr
then you may have reason to suspect the sender of spying and have a moral
(or patriotic) reason for intercepting the message, but in a society not
run by the KGB or the CIA, I cannot see how you could be legally liable for
that any more than for sending it to imaspy!ihnp4.
> 
> Paul.
> -- 
> ------------------------------------------------------
> |debra at research.att.com   | uunet!research!debra     |
> ------------------------------------------------------



Charles Marslett
chasm at killer.dallas.tx.us

(excuse me if these addresses really refer to real persons or organizations
that are not engaged in active spying ;^).