Doesn't the act of taking it across the border, in the laptop, constitute an act of export??

Well, yes it would, but the original scenario includes WRITING the code outside of the US, which means it never was a US creation, even if the creature that happened to be writing the code was native to the US. The question is whether the dude could pull a stunt like this and get away with it. I'd say go for it. You got a plausible loophole to a stupid law that might not hold in court anyways. -Anon