Re: ITP: oms -- Open Media System DVD Player
On Wed, Dec 06, 2000 at 01:22:58PM -0700, John Galt wrote:
> On Wed, 6 Dec 2000, Brian Ristuccia wrote:
> The only issue here is the patent we worked around was a crypto patent
> (RSAREF), so it would have gone into non-US even if it weren't encumbered
> by a patent--it's still in in non-US... I'm not too hot with using non-US
> to distribute something that becomes illegal the minute it resides on a US
> based computer. Basically RSAREF was imported from Canada, where the RSA
> patent didn't apply, and imported patented things are usually stopped at
> the border. If the border patrol fails, the worst case to the user is
> that they lose whatever they paid for the item: it gets siezed and the
> citizen goes about their business unless they were one of the
> importers: even then, there's often an allotment of things you can cross
> the border with that fall into this category for personal use. Now we get
> to the enjoined stuff. If a court finds you covered by the injunction,
> you may go to jail. No ifs, ands, or buts: no "personal use" allowance,
> just an order to show cause and a date with the jailer. A Debian system
> should be a statement for free software, it should not be an arrest
> warrant in the making.
So because it could cause problems for Americans... it shouldn't go into
Debian?
There's a whole new world beyond your borders you know...
--
Regards, Paul
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