Legal Memorandum: Regulations on the Export of Internet Browsers

Issue: What are the current legal restrictions or regulations (if any) on the export of Internet browsers utilizing 128-bit encryption to Colombia, France, Hong Kong, Hungary, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United Kingdom?

1.       Existing Resources

There are two principal sources that augment the 2000 GILC/EPIC Survey of Encryption Regulation and provide multi-national coverage of encryption regulation:

Bert-Jaap Koops, Crypto Law Survey (http://cwis.kub.nl/~frw/people/koops/lawsurvy.htm)

This Web site, now in its 17^th edition (Feb. 2000), is similar in format to the GILC/EPIC Survey, but provides more comprehensive coverage of regulatory schemes in some of the covered nations and more links to source documents.  It appears to be compiled from data that is independent of data used to compile the GILC/EPIC Survey.  Covered nations include Columbia, France, Hong Kong, Hungary, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.  However, Taiwan and Thailand are not covered.

Extensive links to source materials are provided.  The site is updated at intervals of four to five months; a listserv is used to notify interested parties of changes.  The site includes a world map showing countries with export controls, and a separate map showing countries with import controls.

Stewart A. Baker & Paul R. Hurst, The Limits of Trust:  Cryptography, Governments and Electronic Commerce (Kluwer 1998)

Written by Stewart A. Baker, former General Counsel of the National Security Agency and a leading U.S. authority on encryption law, this book was published by Kluwer in 1998.  For a full description, see:

http://www.steptoe.com/crypto.nsf/Documents/GeneralInformation.

The text includes country-by-country summaries of cryptography and digital signature policies; expert essays from various countries, providing a narrative perspective of the cryptography regime; and an appendix […]