Re: WARNING: Crypto software to be included into main Debian distribution
tb@becket.net (Thomas Bushnell, BSG) wrote:
> "You might consider" is a far cry from "you must". I don't think you
> understand how lawyers give recommendations.
Are you suggesting that Debian not do those things? Is Debian going
to distribute crypto without doing reverse IP lookups and without the
use restrictions?
> > > He didn't say anything about "not allowing mirrors"--merely that *we*
> > > shouldn't set one up in T7.
> >
> > He said that there should not be an "official" mirror. I'm sorry
> > that, in trying to be brief and to the point, I omitted the word
> > "official". I was more explicit in the first email you responded to.
> > In any case, my point still stands. Is Debian changing its policy to
> > not allow official mirrors in the T7? I'm sure some people will
> > object to that.
>
> We don't need to change our policy at all. We can just do exactly
> what we do now.
What Debian does now is that it distributes all crypto stuff from
servers outside of the US. If Debian distributes from the US, then it
has to have a policy that official mirrors are not allowed in the T7.
That is a significant change. Some people will think that it is worth
it. Some will not.
> Look, is there some other motive here? Our hands are tied *now* with
> the non-us hassle. We would be untying them a little bit by putting
> crypto in main, which is, basically, happening, thanks to the
> favorable legal opinion received.
By distributing crypto from the US, Debian ties its hands in a
different way that they are currently tied. My point is that the new
restrictions on how Debian operates are not trivial. I don't
necessarily think that the best thing for Debian is to put crypto in
main at all costs. We have a genuine, bona-fide legal opinion on what
Debian would have to do in order to distribute crypto from the US. We
now have to decide whether we should do it.
Regards,
Walter Landry
wlandry@ucsd.edu
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