We have the actual ITAR rules to tell us about the public knowledge carve-out. We will receive further confirmation when we get a finding from Department of Commerce, and of course every time a project asks for such a finding there will be further confirmation. I don't think it will be necessary to make as few assumptions as you did in your company.
On Tue, Aug 18, 2020, 17:21 Rich Gopstein rich@ourowndomain.com wrote:
Bruce,
Understood, however, the finding is very narrowly scoped - it only says that your system is not covered by ITAR. It doesn't say why. You believe it's related to the open-source nature of your system, however the finding *doesn't say that.*
I worked for 28+ years in a field that was regulated by the US government. We on occasion also asked for findings on various things. We were NEVER allowed to make assumptions about the finding. You could only go by what the finding said. And in your case, it's only that your system is not covered by ITAR - nothing about *why* it's not covered. Because of that, you can't generalize about other systems being covered or not. It may seem illogical, but that's the way the US regulatory system works.
Rich
On Tue, Aug 18, 2020 at 6:18 PM Bruce Perens bruce@perens.com wrote:
Rich,
The most important thing here is that the DoD finding is *not permission*
- it is a finding that your project wasn't *ever* subject to ITAR. This
is thus useful to other projects that use the same Open Source strategy.
A finding is useful for risk-reduction, in that you can wave it at the court and annoying FBI folks (they have harassed AMSAT developers in the past) and you can use this one as a precedent if you are making a request for another program in which you use the same strategies.
Thanks BruceOn Tue, Aug 18, 2020 at 2:59 PM Rich Gopstein via AMSAT-BB < amsat-bb@amsat.org> wrote:
Michelle,
That's great news, but isn't that ruling only applicable to the specific system that you asked about (digital microwave broadband...)? It's not a general finding that applies to anything else, right?
Rich, KD2CQ
On Tue, Aug 18, 2020, 12:24 PM Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB < amsat-bb@amsat.org> wrote:
Open Source Satellite Work Determined to be Free of ITAR
https://openresearch.institute/2020/08/18/cj-determination-open-source-satel...
The United States Department of State has ruled favorably on Open
Research
Institute's commodity jurisdiction request, finding that specified “Information and Software for a Digital Microwave Broadband
Communications
System for Space and Terrestrial Amateur Radio Use” is definitely not subject to State Department jurisdiction under ITAR, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. This is an important step toward reducing
the
burden of regulations restricting international cooperation on amateur satellite projects, which have impeded engineering work by amateurs in
the
United States for decades.
Export regulations divide both technical information and actual
hardware
into three categories. The most heavily restricted technologies fall
under
ITAR, which is administered by the State Department. Technologies
subject
to more routine restrictions fall under EAR, the Export Administration Regulations, administered by the Department of Commerce. Technologies
that
are not subject to either set of regulations are not restricted for
export.
On 20 February 2020, Open Research Institute (ORI) filed a Commodity Jurisdiction (CJ) Request with the US State Department, seeking to establish that key technologies for amateur radio are not subject to
State
Department jurisdiction. “Information and Software for a Digital
Microwave
Broadband Communications System for Space and Terrestrial Amateur Radio Use” was assigned the case number CJ0003120. On 11 August 2020, the
case
received a successful final determination: the technology is not
subject to
State Department jurisdiction. This is the best possible outcome of a
CJ
request.
The Final Determination letter can be found at
https://openresearch.institute/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2020/08/CJ-000312...
.
Under this determination, the technologies are subject to the EAR. The
next
step is to submit a classification request to the Commerce Department.
ORI
anticipates that the Commerce Department will find that these
technologies
are unrestricted under the carve-out for open source in the EAR.
Open Research Institute (ORI) is a non-profit research and development organization which provides all of its work to the general public
under the
principles of Open Source and Open Access to Research.
This work was accomplished by a team of dedicated and competent open
source
volunteers. The effort was initiated by Bruce Perens K6BP and lead by Michelle Thompson W5NYV.
Open Research Institute developed the ideas behind the Commodity Jurisdiction request, hired Thomsen and Burke LLP (https://t-b.com/)
for
expert legal advice, organized the revisions of the document, and
invited
organizations and individuals with amateur satellite service interests
to
join or support the request.
ORI thanks Libre Space Foundation and Dr. Daniel Estevez for providing their subject matter expertise and written testimony, and JAMSAT for helpful encouragement and support.
The legal costs were fully reimbursed with a generous grant from
Amateur
Radio Digital Communications (ARDC). See https://www.ampr.org/grants/grant-open-research-institute/.
ARDC and ORI share a vision of clearly establishing open source as the
best
and safest way to accomplish technical volunteer work in amateur radio. This final determination letter provides solid support for that
vision. The
determination enables the development of implementation guidelines that will allow free international collaboration.
This clears the path for a number of interesting projects facilitating
new
methods for terrestrial and satellite communications, opening the door
to
robust global digital amateur communications.
Questions and inquiries to ori@openresearch.institute _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership.
Opinions
expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views
of
AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite
program!
Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
-- Bruce Perens - CEO at stealth startup. I'll tell you what it is eventually :-)