Fergie's Tech Blog

U.S. Stance in Spy Case Sparks Concern in Academia

Josh Gerstein writes in The New York Sun:

Concern about the government's aggressive legal stance in a Chinese espionage case is spreading from industry to academia, where some fear that the prosecution's position undermines a long-standing consensus about unfettered access to scientific research.

"This is just shocking," an attorney at Stanford University's Office of General Counsel, Rachel Claus, said.

The sharp reaction is to the Justice Department's arguments against a Chinese-born electrical engineer, Chi Mak, who is accused of conspiring to send data on submarine propulsion and other subjects to the Chinese government. Prosecutors have asserted that Mr. Mak cannot defend himself against the export control charges by arguing that the information was in the public domain.

"If you take their line of argument, you can't have Chinese students at a university studying and learning information in a textbook," a compliance officer at Stanford, Steve Eisner, said. He noted that giving information to a foreign national in America can be considered the equivalent of exporting that data abroad.

posted by Fergie @ 4/02/2007 09:37:00 PM