Re: your mail
On Wednesday 21 May 2003 10:55, Aryan Ameri wrote:
> On Wednesday 21 May 2003 16:45, Mike M wrote:
> > On Tuesday 20 May 2003 20:12, Aryan Ameri wrote:
> > > > Any restrictions to observe if coming from US? Are they better
> > > > to arrive from a non-US source?
> > >
> > > hehe...
> > > And I thought the cold war was finished !!!
> >
> > Putting encryption software on a CD and mailing it to someone you
> > don't know could be the first step in violating a federal law in some
> > places on this planet. The person receiving the CD could forward it
> > to a country that is restricted from such software by the sender's
> > country, making the original sender a possible conspirator in this
> > scenario. The US has laws regarding the export of encryption
> > software. Other countries may have similar laws. I believe that
> > officials in these countries are more prepared to follow up on such
> > transgressions than in the recent past. A sincere act to help could
> > backfire. Ignorance is no defense in these matters.
>
> After reading your interesting arguments (which I agree and believe are
> true) this question comes to my mind.
>
> I believe my country (Iran) is in the list of countries which US
> restricts exporting such software to. But, encryption software is
> bundled with every GNU/Linux distro, and all the Iranians (including
> me) can download these software and use them. I wonder, according to US
> law (which I am unfamiliar with), are users of such software in these
> countires, violating any US rules? What about the distributor?
If country A prohibits sending software S to country B, then if person P1 in
A physically sends S to person P2 in B, then P1 would be violating the rule
in A.
If P1 runs an ftp site containing S in A and P2 in B downloads S from A's ftp
site, does P1 violate the rule in A? Is P1 responsible for preventing P2
from downloading S?
This discussion relates to another thread on this list about eliminating
telnet in favor of ssh. ssh is clearly encrytion software and is under
distribution control of some countries. telnet should remain available to
allow remote terminal access in a distro that is internationally unrestricted.
--
Mike M.
Reply to: