Crypto reg clarification from Commerce Department

[Bill Stewart]

http://jya.com/bxa123096.txt has the Federal Register text
of the interim export administration rules.  I haven't waded through
all the comparisons of which interim amends what paragraph of what subplot
of the revised prohibitions, etc., but there's one paragraph that 
may be relevant to the SWAN project.
        "This interim rule also amends part 744 to add a general prohibition
        in Sec. 744.9 with respect to technical assistance in the development
        or manufacture abroad of encryption commodities and software controlled
        for EI reasons and makes conforming changes throughout the EAR."

Lucky Green has been talking with Commerce to try to get
clarification of some of the requirements on a related issue;
they say not to worry about some of the paragraphs because they
only apply to missiles, nukes, and similar Real Munitions,
but the paragraph above sounds like it's still talking about crypto.
I'm not sure if "technical assistance" is clearly defined, 
and I'm not sure if hiring some foreigner to build something for _you_
counts as providing technical assistance to _them_, but it makes
it more difficult to do the right thing while debugging non-US systems.

Excerpts from Lucky's post:
>From: Lucky Green <shamrock at netcom.com>
>Subject: Crypto reg clarification from Commerce Department
>Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 15:14:56 -0800
>To: cypherpunks at toad.com
>....
>I just got of the phone with Bruce Kutz, Export Policy Analyst, Office of
>Strategic Trade and Foreign Policy Controls. (202) 482-0092. He seems to be
>the contact person for the new regs.
>
>I pointed Mr. Kutz to the section that alarmed me:
>Sec. 736.2  General prohibitions and determination of applicability.
        [stuff you can't do about financing, supporting, proliferation etc.]
>Mr. Kutz seemed surprised. Apparently he had not been aware that this
>section was included in the new crypto regs. He then assured me that
>1. Proliferation in the context of this paragraph applies only to
>proliferation of
>a) nuclear (bomb) technology   b) missile technology
...
>2. The Department of Commerce has no intention of banning the financing and
>contracting of non-US crypto development.
>3. Technical assistance to non-US parties requires a license.

#			Thanks;  Bill
# Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts at ix.netcom.com
# You can get PGP outside the US at ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/crypto/pgp
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