FAQ on UK law

[Clive D.W. Feather]

Nicholas Cole said:
> What is much less clear is the question of "export".  Does, for example,
> hosting a piece of software like PuTTY or ssh or gnupg on a UK-based
> website count as "export"? What about providing support for such software?

The European Court, in case C-101/01 ("Lindqvist") decided that 

    there is no 'transfer [of data] to a third country' within the meaning
    of Article 25 of Directive 95/46 where an individual in a Member State
    loads personal data onto an internet page which is stored with his
    hosting provider which is established in that State or in another
    Member State, thereby making those data accessible to anyone who
    connects to the internet, including people in a third country. 

In other words, putting material on a web site is not exporting it as far
as the Data Protection Act is concerned. Whether this would be accepted as
precedence by a UK court on an export control matter is another question. 

(Yes, I am an academic laywer. No, this is not legal advice.)

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