[amsat-bb] Open Source Satellite Work Determined to be Free of ITAR

[Bruce Perens]

On Tue, Aug 18, 2020 at 7:27 PM Zach Metzinger via AMSAT-BB <
amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:

> In the past, AMSAT volunteers have had a rude surprise when they were held
> personally liable for violating ITAR, or so I'm told.
>

Never happened. What did happen is that one or more AMSAT developers had
intimidating interviews with the FBI. I got a direct report from one of the
developers. There has never been a court case, which would have been
necessary for any person or organization to be held liable for anything.

ORI and AMSAT are both their own corporations. When you are working on
behalf of the corporation, and under the direction and its officers, it is
the corporation's liability, not your personal liability. That and the
ability to collect tax-exempt donations are the only reasons we bother
making these organizations formal legal entities at all.

You can insure this sort of risk if the organization has so much to lose
that insurance is economical. Another choice is to accept that the
organization might go bankrupt if it was fined.

In general we face more risk from the IRS and the states that have granted
our charters, over their non-profit rules. If you are an officer of a
corporation that is not in good standing, it gets in the way when you want
to be an officer of another corporation.

    Thanks

    Bruce