From Dr. Carlo Kopp: New Rules Limit Air Power Australia
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I have some unwelcome news. The parliament passed a new bill at the end of October that essentially criminalises all of the open source work APA has been publishing – unless one has a DoD-issued licence, which we would never get due to our long-running public arguments with the Canberra DoD. The bill is based on ITAR but does not have the exclusions for open source and basic research, which are part of the U.S. legislation.
Until the legislation is changed, which may or may not happen, APA is unable to publish any further technical materials regardless of source, due to the risk of arbitrary prosecution. The legislation is written around a "guilty until proven innocent" basis so until you are in court you cannot argue your case. The basis for investigation and action can simply be that a person is "suspected."
We can leave the APA website operating indefinitely, but we cannot add new materials to it.
I have just gone through the process of shutting down all of my research collaborations with the U.S. – academia, NPS, IEEE, etc. All pending possible future changes to the legislation. I expect to see a major exodus of engineering and science academics from Australia over the next two to three years. We may also see some universities go bust due to loss of foreign students.
So it looks like I am out of the military research game for the foreseeable future.
Feel free to circulate this email in senior AOC circles.
Cordially,
Carlo
________________________________________
Dr Carlo Kopp, Associate Fellow AIAA, Senior Member IEEE, PEng
Defence Analyst and Consulting Engineer
Capability and Strategy Research, Air Power Australia: http://www.ausairpower.net/
Email: Carlo.Kopp@iinet.net.au
Ph: 61-3-9548-1585
Cell: 61-437-478-224
Until the legislation is changed, which may or may not happen, APA is unable to publish any further technical materials regardless of source, due to the risk of arbitrary prosecution. The legislation is written around a "guilty until proven innocent" basis so until you are in court you cannot argue your case. The basis for investigation and action can simply be that a person is "suspected."
We can leave the APA website operating indefinitely, but we cannot add new materials to it.
I have just gone through the process of shutting down all of my research collaborations with the U.S. – academia, NPS, IEEE, etc. All pending possible future changes to the legislation. I expect to see a major exodus of engineering and science academics from Australia over the next two to three years. We may also see some universities go bust due to loss of foreign students.
So it looks like I am out of the military research game for the foreseeable future.
Feel free to circulate this email in senior AOC circles.
Cordially,
Carlo
________________________________________
Dr Carlo Kopp, Associate Fellow AIAA, Senior Member IEEE, PEng
Defence Analyst and Consulting Engineer
Capability and Strategy Research, Air Power Australia: http://www.ausairpower.net/
Email: Carlo.Kopp@iinet.net.au
Ph: 61-3-9548-1585
Cell: 61-437-478-224
