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US/non-US (was Re: Debian)



on Sun, Aug 19, 2001 at 07:16:03AM -0700, David Roundy (droundy@civet.berkeley.edu) wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 19, 2001 at 06:49:29PM +1000, Joel Mayes wrote:
> > >>>>> "Tandex" == Tandex  <tand3x@yahoo.com> writes:
> > 
> >     Tandex> I am new to debian and I wonder what is difrent betven
> >     Tandex> US and non-US debian?
> > 
> > G'day Tandex,
> > 
> > The US has some draconion exporting laws. i.e. It's illegal to
> > export encryption software from the US even if that software was
> > originated outside the US.
> 
> More accurately, US used to have these draconian export laws.  The
> laws have changed, but debian still has its crypto stuff in non-US.

Possible point of confusion:  US and non-US refer to archive locations
for portions of the debian packages.  They aren't separate
distributions.

In general, non-US addresses various concerns with the US legal
environment.  Crypto export is a large part of this -- and the
regulations are still not perfectly clear.  I've heard several
discussions lately, one point is that the current US export regulations,
which allow distributing strong crypto in source form, or in binary form
if source is available, are strictly only the current regulatory
interpretations of the US Department of Commerce.  The rules could be
changed on a moments notice by executive action, there's no legislation
or law that says that crypto exports are allowed.

Keeping non-US is probably a good idea in the long-term.

-- 
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