Re: A Proposal to solve the non-US problem.

[john@dhh.gt.org]

I thought about this a bit while feeding the horses.  I hope my ideas don't
look too much like what they turn their hay into.

The maintainer of each package would provide a 'restrictions' header or
file.  A missing restriction would be a bug, and users would be encouraged
to file reports against packages with missing restrictions.  This comes as
close to solving the problem of who is going to investigate the laws of 197
countries as anything can.

Dinstall would extract this information and create a global restrictions
file with entries listing forbidden border crossings:

pgp-i:any=>us:no
pgp-us:us=>any:no
doom:any=>de:no

This information would be used either to construct 'ports' as suggested by
Davide G. M. Salvetti or by the push mirror software to decide whether or
not to push each package.

In the longer run it might be better to have a network of masters connected
by a usenet-like flooding algorithm.  The restrictions would prevent
packages from making illegal border crossings and prevent packages from
being uploaded to 'illegal' masters.  Mirror administrators could then
mirror masters in countries with compatible laws or else install the
appropriate software and become 'leaf nodes'.
-- 
John Hasler
john@dhh.gt.org (John Hasler)
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI