31 C.F.R. § 500.206 Exemption of information and informational materials.
Title 31 - Money and Finance: Treasury
(a) The importation from any country and the exportation to any country of information or informational materials as defined in §500.332, whether commercial or otherwise, regardless of format or medium of transmission, are exempt from the prohibitions and regulations of this part. (b) All transactions of common carriers incident to the importation or exportation of information or informational materials, including mail, between the United States and any foreign country designated under §500.201, are exempt from the prohibitions and regulations of this part. (c) This section does not authorize transactions related to information or informational materials not fully created and in existence at the date of the transaction, or to the substantive or artistic alteration or enhancement of information or informational materials, or to the provision of marketing and business consulting services by a person subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Such prohibited transactions include, without limitation, payment of advances for information or informational materials not yet created and completed, provision of services to market, produce or co-produce, create or assist in the creation of information or informational materials, and payment or royalties to a designated national with respect to income received for enhancements or alterations made by persons subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to information or informational materials imported from a designated national. (d) This section does not authorize transactions incident to the exportation of restricted technical data as defined in section 799 of the Export Administration Regulations, 15 CFR parts 768–799, or to the exportation of goods for use in the transmission of any data. The exportation of such goods to designated foreign countries is prohibited, as provided in §500.201 of this part and §785.1 of the Export Administration Regulations. Example #1: A U.S. publisher ships 500 copies of a book to Vietnam directly from San Francisco aboard a chartered aircraft, and receives payment by means of a letter of credit issued by a Vietnamese bank and confirmed by an American bank. These are permissible transactions under this section. Example #2: A Vietnamese party exports a single master copy of a Vietnamese motion picture to a U.S. party and licenses the U.S. party to duplicate, distribute, show and exploit in the United States the Vietnamese film in any medium, including home video distribution, for five years, with the Vietnamese party receiving 40% of the net income. All transactions relating to the activities described in this example are authorized under this section or §500.550. Example #3: A U.S. recording company proposes to contract with a Vietnamese musician to create certain musical compositions, and to advance royalties of $10,000 to the musician. The music written in Vietnam is to be recorded in a studio that the recording company owns in the Bahamas. These are all prohibited transactions. The U.S. party is prohibited under §500.201 from contracting for the Vietnamese musician's services, from transferring $10,000 to Vietnam to pay for those services, and from providing the Vietnamese with production services through the use of its studio in the Bahamas. No informational materials are in being at the time of these proposed transactions. However, the U.S. recording company may contract to purchase and import preexisting recordings by the Vietnamese musician, or to copy the recordings in the United States and pay negotiated royalties to Vietnam under this section or §500.550. Example #4: A Vietnamese party enters into a subpublication agreement licensing a U.S. party to print and publish copies of a musical composition and to sub-license rights of public performance, adaptation, and arrangement of the musical composition, with payment to be a percentage of income received. All transactions related to the activities described in this example are authorized under this section and §500.550, except for adaption and arrangement, which constitute artistic enhancement of the Vietnamese composition. Payment to the Vietnamese party may not reflect income received as a result of these enhancements. [54 FR 5231, Feb. 2, 1989, as amended at 60 FR 8934, Feb. 16, 1995]
Title 31: Money and Finance: Treasury
PART 500—FOREIGN ASSETS CONTROL REGULATIONS
Subpart B—Prohibitions
§ 500.206 Exemption of information and informational materials.
