Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Administrative Law Blogs -> Customs Law

Administrative Law

: Customs Law

Riddle Me This

The regulations regarding the export of encryption software are among the most convoluted in the trade world. The problem is not so much that the regulations are poorly written. The problem is that the technology is complicated and the average trade person does not necessarily have the expertise needed to interpret the regulations.

That situation is slowly easing as the Obama administration simplifies various aspects of the export laws and regulations. For example, in this Federal Register Notice, the Bureau of Industry and Security is announcing  that certain mass market, publicly available encryption software in object code with symmetric key length greater than 64 bits is no longer subject to EAR. While they were at it, BIS also announced that "publicly available" encryption object code classified under Export Control Classification Number (ECCN) 5D002 on the Commerce Control List when the corresponding source code meets the criteria specified under
License Exception TSU is also no longer subject to the EAR.

I hear rejoicing from the Bay Area.

NOTE: I recognize that "Riddle Me This" is a bad title. I was thinking about encryption and complicated regulations as a puzzle of sorts. Mostly, it makes me sound like the giant geek that I am.

Full post as published by Customs Law on January 07, 2011 (boomark / email).