Re: Are DFSG free package in non-us part of Debian?
Chris Leishman <masklin@debian.org> wrote:
> Lets face it, Debian is an international project, and while we _must_
> adhere to the laws of the various countries we provide software
> for, we should should still try and produce the best, well equipt
> distribution that we can, and deal with the import/export laws later.
Which raises an interesting point: The U.S. does not have a law against
exporting encryption software. It has a law against exporting munitions.
The executive branch (the president and his employees) have classified
software as munitions.
If oranges were classified as munitions they'd also be export
restricted. If cdrom writing software were classified as munitions
they'd be export restricted. But this is a regulatory issue more than
a legal issue.
Which raises the interesting possibility that this whole issue might not
stand up in court. In particular, if the software is clearly written
for a human audience it's very likely that it can be shown that it's
not munitions.
In other words, it's the practical issues [that people don't want to take
the risk that exporting cryptographic software might result in tangling
with the U.S. government in a legal arena] that concern us, not the legal
issues [that the U.S. government has a law against exporting munitions.
--
Raul
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