On Sat, 2004-12-11 at 00:13 +0000, Rich Walker wrote: > > It is outrageous to think that China's or Saudia Arabia's censorship > > regimes should somehow influence our decision making in the slightest. > > I believe the correct flame-inducing argument at this point is "tell > that to the first person tortured or executed for possessing a Debian CD > with hot-babe on it *who was not aware it was there*". If you live in a country with such draconian laws, then surely you ought to make sure as a matter of course about anything that you obtain from anywhere outside that country, regardless of the policy of the source with regards to including things that could get you in trouble. After all it is your life at stake. So, even if Debian were to take the position that they aren't going to include anything which might be illegal somewhere in the world[0] and that they made a genuine concerted effort, in good faith, to make sure that this was true, then I would suggest that since your life could be at stake you ought to make pretty damn certain for yourself that the CD isn't going to get you hung. Or perhaps you might like to trust that responsibility to some group whose aim is to produce a Debian CD that can safely be distributed in your country, but trusting that responsibility to the Debian developers as a whole, when your life may be at stake, would be pretty stupid of you. How many DD's do you think have the knowledge of, for example, Saudi law (not to mention incentive, time etc) necessary to make a guarantee to a person living in Saudi that a package won't get them hung? Crossed with the same knowledge for China? Crossed with the next place? You'd have to be an idiot to trust your life to those odds. [0] which I certainly don't think it should. I agree with Thomas on this one, it would be outrageous to pander to such countries. The fact that a DD is willing to package and distribute something under their local laws seem to me to imply that the package is at least safe to possess in the reasonable countries in the world, in that they won't hang you or otherwise throw the book at you for unwittingly possessing something which happens to be illegal in your jurisdiction. Ian. -- Ian Campbell When in doubt, lead trump.
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