The International Traffic in Arms Regulations are heavy-duty export controls—think big fines and possible jail time—on defense-related products, services, and information. Information, which is called “technical data,” includes facts and figures required to make ITAR items or do pretty much anything of practical value with them. And those items aren’t limited to guns. Among many other things, they include drones, spacecraft, night vision goggles, and radar systems, plus associated parts, components, and software. (Full disclosure: As you may have guessed by now, I’m an export controls lawyer.)
Technical data can assume any form that information takes, which makes it way too easy to accidentally export the wrong thing. Emailing a design file to a friend overseas, posting a bill of materials to a website, simply giving instructions to a foreign national in the United States—these are all exports under the ITAR. And exports under the ITAR almost always require State Department licensing that some countries (like China) and their nationals aren’t even eligible for.
There are a few exceptions to what constitutes “technical data.” One of these is information in the “public domain,” which bears little relation or resemblance to the copyright concept you’re probably familiar with. The ITAR version is currently limited to information broadly available in mostly pre-digital formats. The content in a book at your city’s sole surviving Barnes & Nobles, for example, isn’t ITAR technical data, even if it gives very specific information about guns or drones. But obviously modern technology allows us to spread information in plenty of ways that don’t require dead trees and ink.