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from the making-a-list-and-checking-it-twice dept.
c0lo writes:
An Australian blogger shares his personal experience with orders put on hold by the Australian subsidiary of Element 14 (the former Farnell shop), reportedly based on a watch list maintained by US govt.
From the blog:
The counter person wasn't sure, so checked with someone else who came and wasn't 100% sure, but knew that the system does automatically flag orders based on various identifiers. It could have possibly been one of those stupid US government trade restriction things, because, you know capacitors and opamps can be used by evil terrorists and the like... (International customers have to fill out silly forms with US distributors and manufacturers saying we won't use the parts in nuclear weapons - seriously)
But they enquired further with someone else and the word came back that it wasn't the parts that had been flagged, it was my NAME that was flagged. And they said it was a US government watch list of some description. I was stunned, and it seemed like they didn't quite understand why I was so shocked at this. Because, you know, the whole world has to just sit by and let the US government dictate everything at will.
...
So lets see if I have this straight - An Australian subsidiary, owned by a UK parent company, listed on the UK stock exchange, has an ordering system that automatically matches generic names against some secret US Government watch list, and flags those orders and puts them on hold, for parts that are already stocked in Australia, are likely not made in the US, and likely have come from the main UK warehouse. Call me stupid, but something doesn't seem right with that...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Pav on Wednesday February 26 2014, @11:56AM
I love my conspiracy bacon as much as anyone, but I've got to hear this from somewhere else other than "some blogger" before I'll give it any credence.
(Score: 5, Informative) by DrMag on Wednesday February 26 2014, @12:10PM
How about from an Element 14 representative [eevblog.com]?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Angry Jesus on Wednesday February 26 2014, @12:39PM
Jesus Christ! The guy's name is "David Jones" - the US government put one of the most generically common names on their "no-buy list."
The Jones surname is the 5th most common surname inside the USA [wikipedia.org] and David is the 2nd most common masculine first name. [pokemyname.com] The bureaucratic waste across all the companies kowtowing to this no-buy list caused by having just this one name, never mind who knows how many thousands of others, on this list must be in the millions of dollars per year.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday February 26 2014, @03:21PM
There is no such thing as a "no buy" list.
Discussion should abhor vacuity, as space does a vacuum.
(Score: 2) by Angry Jesus on Wednesday February 26 2014, @06:42PM
There is no such thing as a "no buy" list.
You are correct, there is no such thing as "a" no buy-list. There is more than one.
For example: Specifially Designated Nationals List (SDN) [treasury.gov]
And there is the one that "David Jones" is on: The Denied Persons List. [doc.gov]
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday February 26 2014, @07:26PM
No David Jones on either of those lists.
The first is only a list of people who have had their Assets seized (usually related to terrorism or Drug smuggeling),
The second can't EXPORT certain things out of the United States, almost all of those things are Chemicals, and almost all of those people are already in prison.
Discussion should abhor vacuity, as space does a vacuum.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Angry Jesus on Wednesday February 26 2014, @08:05PM
No David Jones on either of those lists.
You are right. I made a leap of logic from the Element 14 representative referring to a "denied parties list" and assumed they meant the "denied persons list." Still doesn't invalidate the point that these lists exist.
The first is only a list of people who have had their Assets seized (usually related to terrorism or Drug smuggeling),
From the SDN link "U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them"
The second can't EXPORT certain things out of the United States
True but in a deliberately misleading way. They can't export certain things themselves, nor can exporters sell to them.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by forsythe on Wednesday February 26 2014, @04:33PM
That's probably why it's on there. I'll bet John Smith is on there as well. If I wanted to build my own nuclear weapons, I'd probably set up a fake name as well, and if I were to pick a fake name, I'd try and pick one that would be so common that it would be hard for anyone looking it up to realize it wasn't attached to a real person.
(Score: 2) by Angry Jesus on Wednesday February 26 2014, @06:44PM
With that kind of brilliant logic the only thing to do is to put every possible name on the list.
(Score: 1) by forsythe on Wednesday February 26 2014, @07:01PM
Agreed. Critics may point out that some guy called Cantor claims to have proven that no such list exists. That's just defeatist talk, coming from a guy with "can't" in his name.
(Score: 2) by Koen on Wednesday February 26 2014, @07:24PM
some guy called Cantor claims to have proven that no such list exists
You make me wonder: how many persons have a name of infinite length?
/. refugees on Usenet: comp.misc [comp.misc]
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Wednesday February 26 2014, @07:09PM
Ronald McDonald and Mickey Mouse are fucked.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 3, Informative) by Popeidol on Wednesday February 26 2014, @08:42PM
(Score: 5, Informative) by Pav on Wednesday February 26 2014, @12:15PM
Ooops... I should have checked TFA first - I believe he's the real deal. EEVBlog - I watched videos this guy did years ago during a brief stint looking at electronics after I put together a 3d printer. He's basically the Steve Erwin of electrical engineering. ;)
(Score: 5, Funny) by SpallsHurgenson on Wednesday February 26 2014, @02:00PM
He's basically the Steve Erwin of electrical engineering.
He better watch out for crocodile clips [google.com], then.
(Score: 1) by EvilJim on Wednesday February 26 2014, @09:17PM
it was a stingray [wikipedia.org] that got him
(Score: 3, Interesting) by elf on Wednesday February 26 2014, @12:40PM
I suspect we aren't getting the whole story. My theory is that it is a requirement from US Customs that if you export goods from the US for resale to another country you have to flag to them who the end user is. Other countries probably have similar rules.
The fact he got his goods so quickly after being flagged shows he isn't getting unfairly persecuted he just has a name that needs to be cleared.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2014, @01:13PM
So lets see if I have this straight - An Australian subsidiary, owned by a UK parent company, listed on the UK stock exchange, has an ordering system that automatically matches generic names against some secret US Government watch list, and flags those orders and puts them on hold, for parts that are already stocked in Australia, are likely not made in the US, and likely have come from the main UK warehouse. Call me stupid, but something doesn't seem right with that...
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Wednesday February 26 2014, @07:13PM
It's not standard practice. I have ordered some stuff from Element 14 for work before, both from their UK stock and from US stock. Never had any issues like this, and neither has Dave in the past. He has built quite a lot of hardware using parts from E14 without issue before. At some point his name was flagged and this happened.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)