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Comment by danpat | Hacker News Reader

Export restrictions have been in place for a very long time.

Another relatively well-known distributor that got bitten is McMaster-Carr, a mechanical parts supplier (with a very nice web design - http://mcmaster.com/).

After shipping something to a location they shouldn't have, they were penalized in 2003 and they no longer ship outside the US. Which is a damn shame, because they have a great catalogue of stuff that's very easy to navigate.

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OP is an Australian national buying parts locally in Sydney, Australia and getting a watch list flag purportedly from the US.

Seems to me the chicken has already flown the coop, and this sort of thing is purely belligerent and abusive behavior on the part of the US government (their specialty, e.g. FATCA).

They aren't exporting anything to this guy. He's an Australian picking up his order in person in Australia. US laws don't apply.

Except for the fact that our illustrious government here in Australia seems intent on becoming Little America. I'd assume that's why this dumb law is applied.

Wow, you weren't kidding about the web design, even though it's extremely utilitarian, it's very fast and usability is great.

Speed is a product feature. I wish more people realized that.

I'm also impressed by the efficiency of their UI. Most parts suppliers should take a lesson from them.

Maybe their policies have changed since 2003, because do they claim to ship outside the US.

The interesting thing about McMaster's design is that they haven't changed much in the past decade that I've been buying from them. It's always looked like that!

it breaks ctrl + click :(

Yeah, I avoided buying anything from them for the last 7 years because their site was so Javascript heavy.

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