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- <text id=90TT1722>
- <title>
- July 02, 1990: Business Notes:Software
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- July 02, 1990 Nelson Mandela:A Hero In America
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BUSINESS, Page 49
- Business Notes
- SOFTWARE
- What's the Big Secret?
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> The U.S. is keen on boosting exports to Japan, but Ronald
- Hoffman may have gone too far. Federal agents arrested the
- Beverly Hills executive on June 14 for illegally exporting
- software designed for the Strategic Defense Initiative, or Star
- Wars. Five Japanese companies, including Nissan Motor and
- Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, have acknowledged buying the
- software, called Contam. Estimated prices: $150,000 to
- $450,000. Hoffman, 51, allegedly obtained the technology,
- designed for identifying missiles by their exhaust plumes,
- while working as an engineer on a Star Wars project in Los
- Angeles. If convicted, he faces a $1 million fine and ten years
- in prison. All the Japanese firms have denied knowing that
- Hoffman had no export license for the software.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
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