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Re: Initial Proposal to solve this non-US issue



Hi, 
>>"John" == John Hasler <john@dhh.gt.org> writes:

 John> Raul Miller writes:
 >> Mine has other people building the list of restrictions, which the
 >> developer just refers to.  Yours puts all that responsibility on the
 >> developer.

 John> Mine allows her to refer to your list of known restrictions and
 John> then make up her own mind.  The number of restricted packages
 John> is always going to be small, and the maintainers of those
 John> packages the experts on restrictions.

	Sorry, but no Nobody is an expert in restrictions, espescially
 when it comes to international law. Leaving this burden on individual
 developers is wrong. Add to the fact that they maybe breaking the law
 by practicing law ...

 John> A "restrictions" mailing-list?

	Now this may work. People familair with the laws of their
 country or state may be present there, ready to offer advice to
 hapless individual developers. 


 >> I think that it makes a lot more sense for the developer to just say
 >> Restrictions: crypto, gif

 John> That requires a central authority to create and maintain a
 John> database of all known restriction types and countries.  A
 John> single screw-up and it hoses all restricted packages.  I
 John> dislike central authorities.

	Then you really must hate the central authority that is the
 Debian archive. Anyway, your personal preferences aside, a central
 mailing list which maintains a databse (kinda like policy) may be
 ``distributed'' enough to meet your approval, while still not punting
 this to individual developers. 
	
 >> You think it makes more sense for the developer to track the list of
 >> countries which currently have cryptography laws, updating the package
 >> as laws are passed,...

 John> A relatively rare event, I think, and one that a restricted package
 John> maintainer is likely to become aware of as soon as anyone else.

	Rubbish. I'm quite unlikely to be aware of changes in laws in
 Germany. Or finland. Or England. Having a mailing list with
 representatives from as many countries as we can get, who have
 records and common memory, can help individual developers as and when
 the need arises. 

	manoj
-- 
 Perl programming is an *empirical* science!  --Larry Wall in
 <10226@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Manoj Srivastava  <srivasta@acm.org> <http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
Key C7261095 fingerprint = CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05  CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E


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