DTI and Export Control

[Pete Chown]

I had an interesting discussion with an official at the DTI a few days
ago.  He has given permission for me to pass on the substance of the
discussion.  I hope that this is new information and I am not boring you
with things that are already generally known.

The most interesting point is that it looks as though the "public
domain" exception in Wassenaar may be replaced with an exception based
on the open source definition.  I see this as having good and bad
points.  It is good because it clarifies the status of things like the
GNU Privacy Guard.  At the same time it is bad because it may bring a
number of other products within the scope of controls.

There was another point which is interesting by way of background. 
Apparently the Wassenaar round would have collapsed if countries had
insisted on keeping the retail software exception unchanged.  There was
"one country" which was insisting on changes as the price for making
progress on anything else.  However, all other countries (with a few
exceptions) immediately issued an OGEL which essentially preserved the
old exception.

The effect was thus that Wassenaar was amended to permit free export of
short key length products, while the old exceptions remained in force. 
This makes it sound as though the country that wanted restrictions ended
up with nothing; they made concessions and got nothing in return.

I have been asked to feed back people's comments on these issues to the
DTI, so please let me (or the list) know your views.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
      phone +44 (0) 208 542 7856, fax +44 (0) 208 543 0176, post:
  Skygate Technology Ltd, 8 Lombard Road, Wimbledon, London, SW19 3TZ