Export Control

Abstract

Abstract This chapter explores export control, which is one of many types of trade regulation that governments use to promote their economic, diplomatic, and national security interests through international commerce. Similar to any other policymaking exercise, trade regulation will often have unintended side effects in areas outside of policymakers’ then-current core objectives and priorities. The distributed manner in which open source and other decentralised collaboration models are developed, improved, and licensed in the context of international trade will often create novel questions of how to apply trade regulations designed for more traditional means of commerce. The chapter thus presents a checklist with common issues when analysing export control issues in open source. It then offers an example of how export control regimes have been applied to open source ecosystems in the US. Finally, the chapter provides a survey of the applicable export control regimes in the UK, EU, and China.