[42285] in Cypherpunks
Re: CJR returned to sender
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Perry E. Metzger)
Wed Oct 25 13:18:30 1995
To: Michael Froomkin <froomkin@law.miami.edu>
Cc: "Timothy C. May" <tcmay@got.net>, cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 25 Oct 1995 10:05:57 EDT."
<Pine.SUN.3.91.951025100419.15559D-100000@viper.law.miami.edu>
Reply-To: perry@piermont.com
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 1995 12:52:20 -0400
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>
Michael Froomkin writes:
> I agree strongly with Tim May that this (fun) little joke has gone far
> enough. I enjoyed it while it lasted, but the CJR was clearly frivolous,
> the T-Shirt was clearly not a munition, IMHO, and that's that. Write up
> the experience, post it on the web somewhere (I'll provide a space if you
> need it), and call it a day.
I was unaware, Mr. Froomkin, that the legal system of our country had
the right to arbitrarily ignore its own rules and refuse to answer a
question. The munitions T-Shirt was not, in my opinion, substantially
more frivolous than Phil Karn's floppy, which was rejected. I do not
believe that the state department has the right to reject such things
by refusing to accept their mail, and I do not believe that they have
the right to violate their own proceedures. If someone asks "is this
captain midnight decoder ring exportable" they are legally obligated
to answer, one way or the other, unless we live under a government of
men, and not laws.
Perry
