Back in April the University of Massachusetts at Lowell (the “University”) agreed to pay to the Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) a suspended penalty of $100,000 in connection with its unlicensed export of an atmospheric sensing device, antennae and cables valued at slightly more than $200,000 to Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (“SUPARCO”). The fine will be waived if the university does not commit any more export violations during a probationary period of two years.

The items at issue were all classified as EAR99. The violation occurred because SUPARCO is on BIS’s Entity List. The licensing policy for SUPARCO has a presumption of approval for EAR99 items, so had the university applied for a license for these exports, it almost certainly would have been granted.

The atmospheric sensing device is likely the basis for this research paper titled “Study of maximum electron density NmF2 at Karachi and Islamabad during solar minimum (1996) and solar maximum (2000) and its comparison with IRI” and co-authored by employees of SUPARCO and a professor at the University. This paper raises an interesting deemed export issue since transfer of technology, even EAR99 technology, would be a violation of the EAR unless the transferred technology was “publicly available” or if it qualifies as “fundamental research.” It is not always easy to determine whether discussions with foreign persons on the Entity List fall within these exceptions, so cooperative projects with such persons by a university will always entail more than a modicum of risk.

Some tech writers have just discovered the Bureau of Industry and Securities’ Entity List and they are, well, perplexed. Arstechnica, Slashdot and HPC Wire all weighed in on the mysterious list, with all three expressing some surprise that U.S. companies could no longer supply components to T-Platforms, the Russian supercomputer manufacturer that BIS put on the Entity List back in March.

The BIS notice putting T-Platforms on the Entity List cited two rationales. First, the company had received shipments of a number of export-controlled items that had been shipped without the required licenses. Second, the notice stated that there was “reason to believe” that T-Platform was involved with the Russian military’s research on nuclear weapons. As a result, BIS stated that all exports of items subject to the EAR would require licenses and that the licensing policy would be a presumption of denial.

By focusing on the impact of the designation on exports of components and hardware to T-Platforms, the articles all missed a more interesting issue. Last year, T-Platforms delivered a supercomputer to the State University of New York at Stony Brook. My educated guess is the SUNY paid a small fortune and expected and received an agreement from T-Platforms that it would provide maintenance and service as needed for the supercomputer.

Uh-oh. To say the least. Somebody at SUNY right now is probably asking who on earth had the bright idea to buy this thing from Russia, because I’m sure that someone has realized by now that most requests for service by T-Platforms of this leviathan would inevitably require that SUNY transfer EAR99 technology to T-Platforms.  Such a transfer would occur to the extent that the request would transfer to T-Platforms non-public information on the development, production or use of the computers.

How long before we see SUNY’s new supercomputer on eBay for $19.99 OBO?