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Curious about why people like the EXPORT topic?


Several people have claimed that they think this is the best topic (or at 
least one of them).  I might agree that I like the wording.

BUT, having done a little reading about export control I don't see any 
obvious affirmatives that people would run after trying to research them.

I am interested in hearing what possible cases people think make this 
topic worth debating.  From the reading that I have done, cases related 
to issues of weapons proliferation and such are just plan false:  the 
computers which developed the original nuclear bombs were less powerful 
than the calculator I carry around;  the computers which developed more 
advanced nuclear weapons are jokes compared to the personal computers 
many of us bring to tournaments;  and, the technology which we would 
probably consider "info tech" is produced by too many other countries -- 
the simple truth seems to be that our existing restrictions on computer 
tech exports are silly, out dated relics of an earlier age and that there 
is no need for increasing these restrictions.  (Remember, we already have 
restrictions that many feel are too tight, for example the government 
just decided to relax restrictions enough for  pentium level computers to 
be exported).

If there isn't any core ground which affirmatives would feel comfortable 
defending then we will end up with itsy-bity cases or crazy 
interpretations which undermine the wording reasons that lead many of us 
to like this topic at first glance.

Just curious,

--Jamey Dumas
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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