[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3627 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3627

  To amend the Export Administration Act of 1979 with respect to the 
              control of computers and related equipment.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 22, 1993

 Ms. Cantwell (for herself and Mr. Manzullo) introduced the following 
      bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Export Administration Act of 1979 with respect to the 
              control of computers and related equipment.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. GENERALLY AVAILABLE SOFTWARE.

    Section 17 of the Export Administration Act of 1979 (50 U.S.C. App. 
2416) is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new 
subsection:
    ``(g) Computers and Related Equipment.--
            ``(1) General rule.--Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), the 
        Secretary shall have exclusive authority to control exports of 
        all computer hardware, software, and technology for information 
        security (including encryption), except that which is 
        specifically designed or modified for military use, including 
        command, control, and intelligence applications.
            ``(2) Items not requiring licenses.--No validated license 
        may be required, except pursuant to the Trading With The Enemy 
        Act or the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (but 
        only to the extent that the authority of such Act is not 
        exercised to extend controls imposed under this Act), for the 
        export or reexport of--
                    ``(A) any software, including software with 
                encryption capabilities, that is--
                            ``(i) generally available, as is, and is 
                        designed for installation by the purchaser; or
                            ``(ii) in the public domain or publicly 
                        available because it is generally accessible to 
                        the interested public in any form; or
                    ``(B) any computing device solely because it 
                incorporates or employs in any form software (including 
                software with encryption capabilities) exempted from 
                any requirement for a validated license under 
                subparagraph (A).
            ``(3) Software with encryption capabilities.--The Secretary 
        shall authorize the export or reexport of software with 
        encryption capabilities for nonmilitary end-uses in any country 
        to which exports of software of similar capability are 
        permitted for use by financial institutions not controlled in 
        fact by United States persons, unless there is substantial 
        evidence that such software will be--
                    ``(A) diverted to a military end-use or an end-use 
                supporting international terrorism;
                    ``(B) modified for military or terrorist end-use; 
                or
                    ``(C) reexported without requisite United States 
                authorization.
            ``(4) Definitions.--As used in this subsection--
                    ``(A) the term `generally available' means, in the 
                case of software (including software with encryption 
                capabilities), software that is offered for sale, 
                license, or transfer to any person without restriction 
                through any commercial means, including, but not 
                limited to, over-the-counter retail sales, mail order 
                transactions, phone order transactions, electronic 
                distribution, or sale on approval;
                    ``(B) the term `as is' means, in the case of 
                software (including software with encryption 
                capabilities), a software program that is not designed, 
                developed, or tailored by the software company for 
                specific purchasers, except that such purchasers may 
                supply certain installation parameters needed by the 
                software program to function properly with the 
                purchaser's system and may customize the software 
                program by choosing among options contained in the 
                software program;
                    ``(C) the term `is designed for installation by the 
                purchaser' means, in the case of software (including 
                software with encryption capabilities)--
                            ``(i) the software company intends for the 
                        purchaser (including any licensee or 
                        transferee), who may not be the actual program 
                        user, to install the software program on a 
                        computing device and has supplied the necessary 
                        instructions to do so, except that the company 
                        may also provide telephone help line services 
                        for software installation, electronic 
                        transmission, or basic operations; and--
                            ``(ii) that the software program is 
                        designed for installation by the purchaser 
                        without further substantial support by the 
                        supplier;
                    ``(D) the term `computing device' means a device 
                which incorporates one or more microprocessor-based 
                central processing units that can accept, store, 
                process or provide output of data; and
                    ``(E) the term `computer hardware', when used in 
                conjunction with information security, includes, but is 
                not limited to, computer systems, equipment, 
                application-specific assemblies, modules, and 
                integrated circuits.''.

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