-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [Politech] Fed pressure on publishers Date: Wed, 03 Mar 2004 11:09:29 -0500 From: James Lewis <JALewis@private> To: <declan@private> Declan: A friend pointed me to the "Berman Amendment" to the 1988 Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act.. It provides (it's still law) an exemption to sanctions for "information or informational materials" and says that the government does not have the "authority to regulate or prohibit, directly or indirectly the importation from any country, or the exportation to any country, whether commercial or otherwise, regardless of format or medium of transmission, of any information or informational materials, including but not limited to, publications" I would consider a restriction on editing for publication the kind of 'indirect' prohibition forbidden by the amendment. That said, enforcement agencies tend to automatically expand restrictions well beyond what was intended or what is reasonable unless they are checked by political leadership or public complaint. Here's a link to an interesting January 2004 analysis from the Association of American Publishers on OFAC's successful effort to narrow the scope of the amendment: http://www.pspcentral.org/committees/executive/OFAC_background.doc _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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