PRINT
Case No. IA-2012-293259-1
[ ]
William S. Hein & Co., Inc.
1285 Main Street
Buffalo, NY 14209
Dear [ ]
This responds to your letter dated March 22, 2012 (the "Application"), on behalf of William S. Hein & Co., Inc., to the Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC"). You request a specific license to provide access to HeinOnline, a subscription database of legal information, to educational institutions, specifically the University of Tehran, in Iran. According to your Application, you seek guidance on the applicability of OFAC sanctions with respect to the commercial sale of access to an informational database.
The Iranian Transactions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. Part 560 (the "ITR"), generally prohibit the exportation, reexportation, sale, or supply of any goods, technology, or services, directly or indirectly, from the United States or by a U.S. person,...
Click the appropriate link below for access to this file.
Click the appropriate link below for access to this file.
1) Guidance reaffirms validity of 030430-FACRL-IA-04 (Internet Access to Informational Materials). Commercial transactions related to web-based databases are exempt from the ITSR, even where they contain search functionality and presumably envisage the provision of services ancillary to the export of the information, e.g. the provision of login credentials for a website.
OFAC concludes that "to fall under the information and informational materials exemption, the content must be fully created and in existence at the time of the transmission and may not be created at the behest of an Iranian person." (Emphasis added).
Compare e.g. Case No. IA-18313 and note the relationship between these two concepts, and that in Case No. IA-18313 OFAC uses the term (as it appears in the regulations) "in existence at the time of the...