peter@yetti.UUCP (Runge) (04/26/85)
I was interested to see in a recent NY Times that the DoD told the
Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers that about a dozen
(unclassified) papers could not be presented and the audiences for another
2 dozen had to be restricted. Apparently the DoD feels it has the
authority to do this under the Export Control Act which makes it illegal
to export certain technologies without a license, and "when speeches
and papers are involved, .. the presence of foreign scientists could
lead to the unauthorized export of information."[sic!] {sick?!}
This somehow calls to mind a story I heard on the 60s (when there really
was free speech -- remember Ellsberg!) about a physicist who quit
a job with the IDA and was then asked by a former colleague to clarify
something in the notes he left behind. Unfortunately, no longer having
a clearance, he wasn't authorized to reread the notes and the defenders
of the free world had to do without his insights. {No, there's no real
connection with the first paragraph except to illustrate in another
way the bizarre attitudes of the military towards research and scientific
information.}
--
Peter H. Roosen-Runge, Department of Computer Science, York University
Toronto (Downsview), Ontariogwyn@brl-tgr.ARPA (Doug Gwyn <gwyn>) (04/29/85)
The problem is apparently that people do not want to expend the effort that it would take to fight the encroaching bureaucracy. By letting bullies push one around, one just makes it worse in the future. Expect the day when you can't say "2+2=4" for fear that some foreign power may be able to use that knowledge.
larry@anasazi.UUCP (Larry Rodis) (04/30/85)
> The problem is apparently that people do not want to expend the effort > that it would take to fight the encroaching bureaucracy. By letting > bullies push one around, one just makes it worse in the future. > > Expect the day when you can't say "2+2=4" for fear that some foreign > power may be able to use that knowledge. The IEEE has also had papers removed from conferences by the DoD. In these cases it was because some or all of the funding for the research was from the DoD, and the authors of the papers hadnot gone through the proper channels to get there paper cleared. I believe that this is also the case in the other examples. If anybody has heard of the DoD supressing a research paper when the author received no funding from the DoD please post this story to the net. -- Larry Rodis UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|hao}!noao!terak!anasazi!larry ucbvax!asuvax!anasazi!larry PHONE: +1 (602)275-0302
alcmist@ssc-vax.UUCP (Frederick Wamsley) (05/05/85)
> The IEEE has also had papers removed from conferences by the DoD. In these > cases it was because some or all of the funding for the research was from > the DoD, and the authors of the papers hadnot gone through the proper channels > to get there paper cleared. I believe that this is also the case in the > other examples. > > If anybody has heard of the DoD supressing a research paper when the author > received no funding from the DoD please post this story to the net. The April 15 issue of Aviation Week and Space Technology reports that one of the papers which the Pentagon would not allow to be presented at the recent meeting of the International Society for Optical Engineering was written by two Canadians at a Canadian observatory. Maybe they were getting DOD funding but somehow I doubt it. The reason the Pentagon gives for preventing papers from being presented is that reading a paper at a conference attended by non-Americans amounts to the export of the information in the paper. The same laws which require an export license for a fighter or a Cray are being applied to research papers. Fred Wamsley -- UUCP:{ihnp4,decvax}!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!alcmist ARPA:ssc-vax!alcmist@uw-beaver This article should not be taken as reflecting on my employer... USENET: where ignorant armies clash by night
eugene@ames.UUCP (Eugene Miya) (05/07/85)
> > The problem is apparently that people do not want to expend the effort > > that it would take to fight the encroaching bureaucracy. > > > > Expect the day when you can't say "2+2=4" for fear that some foreign > > power may be able to use that knowledge. Hear hear! bureaucracy! If you could only see the form I have to get signed to release my research papers. I need six signatures, and I work for a civilian agency. --eugene miya NASA Ames Research Center {hplabs,ihnp4,dual,hao,decwrl,allegra}!ames!aurora!eugene emiya@ames-vmsb.ARPA
bhaskar@fluke.UUCP (K.S. Bhaskar) (05/10/85)
I was once at a conference where some DoD nits tried to pull the Proceedings the night before the opening session. After much pleading from the authors, they relented and permitted publication when the company promised not to do it again. Later, the true story came out. The company wanted to attract publicity but had mediocre research results. So, they submitted the paper for publication without prior clearance and then told DoD about it at the last minute so that DoD would try to stop publication. This was in 1982, when this sort of nonsense still made news, and the company received much undeserved publicity!