Re: US Encryption Policy Change Now Official!
>>>>> "Bear" == Bear Giles <bear@coyotesong.com> writes:
Bear> I think that's what the ham radio licenses are intended to
Bear> address. Operating a ham station without a license is a
Bear> criminal act. Some licenses require special software to
Bear> operate, and this software has no use other than operation
Bear> of a specific type of ham station. Therefore anyone using
Bear> the software must be planning to operate a ham station.
Bear> Therefore knowingly providing the software to someone
Bear> without a suitable license is aiding the commission of a
Bear> crime.
This is a very, very dangerous line of reasoning. If you believe
this, then you should probably believe that all software should
include clauses restricting its use to only those activities which are
legal in all countries. Should GCC have a restriction preventing it
from compiling software which could be used to crack into other
computers? If country X has a law against viewing any "adult
pictures" on one's computer, should all of the image viewing software
come with a restriction that you can't use it to view adult pictures?
Who defines an "adult picture"? What if definitions in different
countries conflict? Do you take the most restrictive? The least
restrictive? The middle ground?
It is impossible for one to be responsible for every concieveable use
of one's software in all possible countries. Therefore, software
should be free of ridiculous restrictions like the one on the ham
radio station software.
--
Colin Walters <levanti@verbum.org>
http://web.verbum.org/levanti
(1024D/C207843A) A580 5AA1 0887 2032 7EFB 19F4 9776 6282 C207 843A
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