Export Controls: Practical Models
Scenario 1
Giving students and visitors from a foreign country a tour of the research laboratories in your School may constitute an export.
True False
True. The tour may include access to areas containing export controlled materials or technology. Compounding the problem might be the countries represented by the visitors.
Scenario 2
You worked with your Empowered Official and received a license last year to ship a piece of export controlled equipment to a foreign country. You are getting ready to ship another identical piece of equipment but, since it is identical and less than a year from the prior license request, you do not need an additional license.
False. Shipping a second item requires a separate license.
Scenario 3
You are teaching a course to graduate and undergraduate students on solid-state lasers. The course is listed in the course catalog, but since foreign national students are involved you need a license.
False. Teaching a regular course which is listed in the institution’s course catalog is exempt from license requirements, whether the students are U.S. citizens or foreign nationals.
Scenario 4
Same as scenario 3 EXCEPT the course is listed simply as a “special topics” course.
True. The difference is that a “special topics” course is not a regular course listed in the course catalog.
Scenario 5
Faculty member is going to Germany to do research at a German university while on sabbatical. Since Germany isn’t a terrorist country or on the Treasury’s embargoed list, he doesn’t need any license or approval.
False. The research itself might be controlled and he might be sharing the results with foreign nationals from controlled countries while in Germany.
Scenario 6
Faculty member is doing basic research in the area of remote sensing on a contract from the Department of Defense. The contract includes a clause restricting the release of unclassified information without sponsor approval. I would need approval from the sponsor to publish the information but I would be free to share the research results with all the students in my laboratory, including foreign students, prior to publication.
False. Accepting the clause negated the FRE and thus foreign nationals working on the projects or learning the research details would require a license.
Scenario 7
Faculty member is working with company on GEMS (ITAR controlled material). Contract includes a restriction on information “generated under the contract” as well as “provided by the sponsor.” The faculty member is a U.S. citizen and the information is provided directly to him. Foreign nationals cannot work on the contract even if all the ITAR controlled information is restricted to the PI and not shared with the students.
True. The problem has to do with information “generated under the contract”. If that language were out, everything done on campus that did not utilize the proprietary information given to the faculty member would be FRE. Since it is in the contract, the FRE is not available.
Scenario 8
Faculty member (U.S. citizen) plans to take his laptop overseas with greater than 56-bit encryption installed on it. He is visiting the U.K, Germany, and Ireland and does not need a license to do so.
True, as long as the laptop remains under the faculty member’s effective control while outside the U.S. This would not be true, however, if he were traveling to or through an embargoed or terrorist country, where a license would be required.
Scenario 9
A U.S. citizen/permanent resident may use greater than 56-bit encryption when communicating with someone outside the U.S.
True, since the use of encryption is not regulated. However, the U.S. person cannot ship a U.S. product overseas without a license (which might be necessary for interoperability). Neither can the U.S. person import a product made overseas and then reship it without a license.
Office of the Provost | School of Engineering & Science | School of Systems & Enterprises | College of Arts & Letters | School of Technology Management Stevens Institute of Technology | 1 Castle Point on Hudson, Hoboken, NJ 07030 | Phone: 201.216.5263 | Fax: 201.216.8909
