Re: Package copyright problems
"Benjamin A'Lee" <lists@benalee.co.uk> wrote:
> On Wed, 2006-03-15 at 12:22 +0100, Henning Makholm wrote:
> > Scripsit Jesse van den Kieboom <jesse@icecrew.nl>
> >
> > > My situation is as follows. The application itself is GPL licenced, but
> > > some of the code has been taken from the lambdamoo server. The lambdamoo
> > > source is copyrighted with the following copyright:
> >
> > > Copyright (c) 1992, 1995, 1996 Xerox Corporation. All rights
> > > reserved.
> > ...
> > > Any distribution of this software or derivative works must comply
> > > with all applicable United States export control laws.
> >
> > This is a non-free condition.
> >
>
> Surely it'd only be non-free if it said "must comply with United States
> export control laws"? Outside the US, US export laws are not
> applicable, so the condition doesn't apply. Or am I missing something?
US export laws restrict a number of types of software that you might
not think were problematic (hydrodynamic simulation codes). If they
were enforced, it would significantly hamper the ability of US
scientists to distribute code. What makes it tolerable is that it is
only enforced against certain, more specific types of software
(radiation-hydrodynamic simulation codes). With this license,
distributing the first type of software outside the US would be
prohibited, even though the government doesn't actually care.
Cheers,
Walter Landry
wlandry@ucsd.edu
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