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From: perley@vdsvax.uucp (perley donald p)
Newsgroups: sci.crypt,net.sources.d,misc.legal
Subject: Re: There are basically no export controls on public domain information.
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Date: Fri, 10-Oct-86 14:07:32 EDT
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Posted: Fri Oct 10 14:07:32 1986
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Reply-To:chinet!steinmetz!vdsvax!perley (Don Perley)


In article  gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) writes:
>I got into a hassle last month for posting a DES program to mod.sources
>because someone claimed that I was breaking the export control law.
>
>I spent the afternoon down at the Federal Building and discovered that
>export policy is in better shape than I thought.  Basically, you can
>export any technical data to any destination if it "has been made
>generally available to the public in any form".  This export is under
>a "general license" which is available to everyone without any paperwork.
>...........
>	                      These general licenses are not
>	applicable to exports under the licensing jurisdiction of agencies
>	other than the Department of Commerce."
>

There's the rub!  A company I worked for in 1979 (Software Solutions,
Inc) 
could not export a DES based encryption package.

The agency that had to approve (and didn't) was BATF (Bureau of Alchohol,
 Tobacco, & Firearms).  Apparently encryption tools count as firearms.
 
That was a few years ago, things may have changed.

Don Perley 
 chinet!steinmetz!vdsvax!perley (or so I'm told)