IRELAND AND DTI

[Brown, R Ken]

> nigel hickson[SMTP:nigelhickson@compuserve.com] wrote:
> 
[...snip...]

> DTI:  We are not all brain dead.  I am not responsible for new White
Paper
> (XNP are) but it does not suggest repealing GSN or altering OGELs.  It
just
> suggests (as EU have done) that where a product is controlled (eg
> encryption software) the intangible export of that (by fax or E mail)
> should also be. 

I don't think anyone suggested that you *all* were :-)

But as we all know when a "product" consists entirely of information (or
speech, or  software, or data,  or ideas - in this context those words
mean exactly the same thing) its export  *cannot*  be controlled. 

When a  government proposes to legislate on how many  angels can dance
on the head of a pin, or whether the sun shall rise tomorrow, I  find it
amusing.  When they start discussing laws to give the police powers to
deport excess angels from the heads of pins, I get worried. Not because
I fear for the angels - but because I don't want the police to waste my
time inspecting the pins  in *my* sewing kit.   In general unenforceable
laws are bad laws. This white paper seems to propose unenforceable laws.