From: utzoo!decvax!cca!Jim@sri-unix
Newsgroups: net.space
Title: Technology theft
Article-I.D.: sri-unix.1925
Posted: Sun Jun 27 17:13:11 1982
Received: Tue Jun 29 04:34:31 1982


I am glad that some of our capitalists are getting their act together
and denying the Soviets some of the fruits of our labors.  However,
people should remember that there is a lot of difference between the
Soviets knowing that something works, knowing how it works, having a
working model, and developing the capability to manufacture and
maintain that product.  The conflict we have here is mainly in the
first and second areas, ie the research phase (I know of no one who
seriously advocates us becoming a supplier of the Soviets or building
high-tech plants for them, although some of our Western European
"allies" come close).  In particular University research meant for
publication probably should not be restricted by the government, since
the incremental benefits the Soviets gain are far outweighted by our
gains in promoting a free flow of information throughout the
community.  The same sort of issues surface when discussing links
between Universities and industrial research labs.

As for the distinctions between military and non-military technology,
they are only really possible in those last two stages - and even
here, commercial technology can often be easily adapted to military
ends.  Although a blanket ban is not justified, completely free trade
is hardly possible either.

Jim

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