All,
The US has export restrictions on strong encryption and other types of commerce to/from a list of countries. In this particular case, I have a sales inquiry from Iran.
Technically, I am not "exporting" anything, since it's a hosted server that will remain here in the USA. However, the server does contain strong encryption technologies (openssl, openssh, etc) and Iran is certainly "on the list".

So, the question is, can I rent a dedicated server to a commercial entity or person homed in Iran ? We have many international customers, but this is the first inquiry from one of the "Axis of Evil".

Thank you for your thoughts...

Mike

When you lease (rent) a servers, its technically NOT exporting. openssl and openssh are free to download and use and I'm sure if they really want to use them maliciously they dont need to lease a server just to get those encryption technologies.

And besides, I might be wrong here, but as far as I know, those "encryption" restrictions are on routers and such, not servers. Again, I might be wrong, but that is what I was told in the forum when I posted something similar.

US Trade sanctions prevent US companies from doing business with Iran. So any transaction would be illegal

Apparently US trade sanctions have not stopped a number of Iranian bloggers from acquiring blogger.com, blogspot.com and other free / for fee blog site accounts.

Filtering by the Iranian government, on the other hand, has been fairly effective at same.

The sanctions on commerce with Iran are not all-encompassing.

See
http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/programs/iran/iran.shtml

From the PDF entitled Publishing Activities Involving Manuscripts From Iran (Iran) (http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/programs/iran/int_guide/ia100203.pdf)

As you know, the importation from any country and the
exportation to any country of information and informational
materials, whether commercial or otherwise, regardless of
format or medium of transmission, are exempt from the
Iranian Transactions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. Part 560 (the
ITR). ITR, § 560.210(c). The term information and
informational materials includes publications, films,
posters, phonographs, microfilms, microfiche, tapes,
compact desks, CD ROMS, artworks, and wire feeds.
§ 560.315(a)(1).

See also:
Internet Access to Informational Materials (Iran) (http://www.treas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/programs/iran/int_guide/ia043003.pdf)