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

Wed Aug 19 03:23:22 UTC 2020

Yes, Joseph, it’s amazing news and It is just as good as advertised.

The result is of enormous and direct benefit to AMSAT.

AMSAT was asked to join the request. I sent a paper letter, wrote the
board, brought it up during the 2019 annual board meeting, and published an
open letter. I did all I could to enable the full participation of the one
organization that stands to benefit the most from this determination.

But, the men you voted for did not respond, at all.

It took a year of very hard work. It’s a gift to the community. It can
restore free and open international collaboration.

That’s it. There’s no tricks or gotchas. It is what it is claimed to be.

I would have done the same work and raised the same money if AMSAT had
wanted their name on it. I would be just as proud and would be saying the
same things. When work needs to be done, it needs to be done.

Information contained in CJ requests is not usually made public. The law
firm would not file it unless it was presented to the State Department as
private and confidential. This advice was because virtually all requests
are for proprietary programs and products. Sticking out in this regard, by
doing something they advised strongly against, would not work to our
advantage in any way. I want to win for open source, not die on the wrong
hill.

Additionally, the law firm does not want their work products or email
correspondence published. We will honor that. We want to work with them
again. They were fantastic, recommended by EFF, and 100% supportive of open
source.

Fortunately, *everything* that went into the request is already public
information. All our designs, details, policies, procedures, definitions,
diagrams, and code are available to the general public free of charge,
today. That’s the primary reason it succeeded. We already follow the law
with respect to public domain carve outs and publishing requirements. The
final determination shows the value of this approach.

AMSAT can do this too. There is literally no reason not to. This is the
game changer people have been waiting for.

*All* of what *anyone* will need to know to take full advantage will be
published in a set of implementation guidelines.

This is the single best risk reduction for AMSAT volunteers that exists in
US law. It is the gold standard. We have access as a community to this
result because a team of very committed and competent people made it happen
and are now going to make it easy to use.

Want to contribute to the guidelines? Participants are welcome.

-Michelle W5NYV

On Tue, Aug 18, 2020 at 18:01 Joseph Armbruster <josepharmbruster at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Michelle,
>
> This is quite interesting, indeed!  However, from your press release, I
> really have no clue what "Information and Software for a Digital Microwave
> Broadband Communications System for Space and Terrestrial Amateur Radio
> Use", means (in terms of the legalese, definitions and proper nouns used,
> etc...).  Depending on how they were defined, the determination may or may
> not be directly relevant to AMSAT or anyone else for that matter...  And
> just to be clear, i'm not trying to be a spoiler here or anything, this
> could be really amazing news, or nothing more than a null determination
> that sounds great in a headline but really means nothing.  I think Everyone
> would welcome relaxed ITAR constraints on AMSAT engineers, in any
> way, shape or form...  That being said, this begs the question, is the Form
> DS-4076 and all supplemental materials, along with all written
> communications with the DOS/DDTC concerning this matter, being made
> public?  I think this would be absolutely necessary for anyone on the list
> to get excited about this, in any way, shape or form.  I looked on the ORI
> website and couldn't find anything around Feb 2020 (per the date the
> indicated submission was made per the AUG11 reply from the DDTC).
>
> Although, I am not a particular fan of ORI so-far, which is why I voted
> for Hammond, Paige, Stoetzer....
>
> I do commend any individual or entity that is able and willing to deal
> with the DOS or DDTC.  It takes a lot of time and $.  At one point, my
> business helped develop parts of a research UAV for a foreign military on a
> high-altitude balloon, which included a wireless network.  One export
> permit took over six months, with back-and-forths with questions and
> clarifications, questions and clarifications, more questions and
> clarifications... on and on and on...  Just because they say you can
> produce Information and Software for a widget (however those are defined),
> it doesn't necessarily mean you can actually get a permit to ship the
> hardware with the software on it, anywhere.  Because the 'Information and
> Software' (however defined), may not govern the hardware used.  In my case,
> there were special accelerometers and gyros, that you don't purchase
> without providing a lot of information.  So, no matter what software was
> written to drive them, if you shipped them out of the country without a
> permit, look out!  I remember finally getting my first export permit and
> shipping label and putting it on the box and sending some hardware out.  It
> was just a sticky label that went on a box, but wow, it wasn't easy.
>
> It sure would be nice if ITAR was less of an issue but the devil's really
> in the details here...
>
> Joseph Armbruster
> KJ4JIO
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 18, 2020 at 12:29 PM Michelle Thompson via AMSAT-BB <
> amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:
>
>> Open Source Satellite Work Determined to be Free of ITAR
>>
>>
>> https://openresearch.institute/2020/08/18/cj-determination-open-source-satellite-work-is-free-of-itar/
>>
>> 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-0003120-Final-Determination-Letter.pdf
>> .
>>
>> 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 at openresearch.institute
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Opinions expressed
>> are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of
>> AMSAT-NA.
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> --
-Michelle W5NYV

"Potestatem obscuri lateris nescis."