Even defense contractors get tripped up. This past August, Armor Holdings, a unit of BAE Systems, reached a $1.1 million settlement agreement related to charges that Armor exported plastic handcuffs above the allowable licensed value. Specifically, Armor exported plastic handcuffs valued at $1,980 under a license that authorized export of plastic handcuffs valued at $1,000.

"It's preposterous," says Robert Clifton Burns, an attorney in Washington, D.C. "These products are available all over the world. It's enough to make export-compliance officers break out into a cold sweat."

Moreover, following the export control list alone won't necessarily keep you out of trouble. At this past July's American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Joint Propulsion Conference in Cincinnati, sponsored by General Electric , Chinese engineers offered a glimpse of their efforts to develop Mach 5 air vehicles as part of high-speed missile programs, and Iranians presented papers on solid and liquid rocket technologies. Of course, the Tehran-based engineers didn't actually attend the conference, but by presenting their research they had access to all of the highly detailed U.S. aircraft and rocket propulsion presentations made at the conference.

If the information at the conference went beyond what's already available in the public domain or beyond certain fundamental research (areas described as permissible by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations), then conference attendees may have committed export violations, notes Burns.

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