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Where can one get a copy of ITAR ? Secondly , has anyone written any books on the subject and if so who and what?

The ITAR is a regulation, not a law. You can find it via my crypto export control page at http://www.cygnus.com/~gnu/export.html under "State Department export guidance". Or at ftp://ftp.cygnus.com/pub/export/itar.in.full. It's 380 kbytes (but ignorance of it is no excuse!). That regulation is authorized by the Arms Export Control Act (AECA), a law (22 USC Sec. 2778). The law is also available in the same places. It's only 40 Kbytes. I own and can recommend several books on export controls. Layman's books on general export controls and technology policy issues: 90-26801: Finding common ground : U.S. export controls in a changed global environment / Washington, D.C. : National Academy Press, 1991. xviii, 390 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. LC CALL NUMBER: HF1414.5 .F56 1991 87-34877: Technology transfer : a policy model / Philip A. Roberts. Washington, DC : National Defense University Press, 1988. xiii, 86 p. ; 21 cm. LC CALL NUMBER: HC110.T4 R62 1988 SERIES TITLE: A National security essay DEWEY DEC: 338.973/06 dc19 93-50697: Silencing science : national security controls and scientific communication / Harold C. Relyea. Norwood, NJ : Ablex Pub., c1994. xvii, 248 p. ; 23 cm. LC CALL NUMBER: Q223 .R45 1994. SERIES TITLE: Information management, policy, and services. DEWEY DEC: 338.97306 dc20. ISBN: 156750096X; 1567500978 (pbk.) Lawyer's Tome on export controls, with detailed case citations and such: 91-37498: Root, William A. United States export controls / 3rd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ : Prentice Hall Law & Business, c1991- 1 v. (loose-leaf) : ill. ; 26 cm. ISBN: 0139529381 LC CALL NUMBER: KF1987 .L54 1990. DEWEY DEC: 353.0082/76 dc20 [This one is loose-leaf and gets annual updates at $80/year. I forget how much it cost originally.] By the way, if you're trying to find general references on export controls or crypto, or anything else, I recommend `telnet://locis.loc.gov' and searching the Library of Congress card catalog or the copyright records. The user interface is IBM mainframe oriented, but the information is without peer. John Gilmore