In the United States, some technologies are considered “munitions”. Space satellites, rocketry, digital voice encoding, and encryption are among them. Depending on the technology, they are regulated by the Department of State under ITAR, or the Department of Commerce under EAR.
The Open Source cryptography community worked out how to operate in compliance with ITAR and EAR a decade or more ago, filing several lawsuits against the U.S. Government on the way. Unfortunately, the Amateur Satellite and Space community hasn’t been as up-to-speed. It’s time for that to change.
In January, Michelle Thompson W5NYV and I decided to form a new non-profit corporation specifically structured for the purpose of operating international Open Source development of projects that might otherwise be considered to be munitions under ITAR and EAR. To do this, we make use of carve-outs in ITAR and EAR for published information.
Ben Hilburn (of GNU Radio fame) joined Michelle and I on the board of directors.
Michelle is leading the Phase 4 Ground Station project, an Open Source project to create a digital space communications system. Phase 4 Ground and my Open Cars research will be the first projects under our new organization, Open Research Institute, Inc.
We are now incorporated in California and are filing our registration with the State as a charitable organization today. We have contracted a firm to prepare our 501(c)3 tax-exempt non-profit application with the Internal Revenue Service.