Treasury-Publisher Saga Continues.

This article reports on the final ruling issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on December 16, 2004 regarding publishing activities with people in sanctioned countries. This ruling follows a lawsuit filed against OFAC on September 27, 2004, by several publishers arguing that the agency does not have the authority to mandate licenses for publishing activities with these countries. This new ruling enables U.S. persons to freely engage in most ordinary publishing activities with persons in Cuba, Iran, and Sudan, while maintaining restrictions on certain interactions with the governments, government officials, and people acting on behalf of the governments of those countries. In its place, OFAC has issued three general licenses that authorize certain activities relating to publishing that otherwise entail the prohibited exportation of services to, or prohibited importation of services from, Cuba, Sudan, or Iran. These regulations permit U.S. citizens to engage in all transactions necessary and ordinarily incident to the publishing and marketing of manuscripts, hooks, journals, and newspapers in paper or electronic format. This OFAC ruling almost reverses the position that the agency has taken since September 2003 regarding its interpretation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Trading With the Enemy Act. According to the press release issued on December 15, 2004, OFAC still contends that it will have the authority to require licenses for these publishing activities.