I don't know what the right list to bring this issue up is, so I write to all
three lists to get to the right people.
Here are my views on the crypto on main subject.
I suppose there has been debate on this subject before on other debian lists,
but as I'm not subscribed to more than 3 and have no idea on where/when it may
have sprung...
My view is that by including crypto on main, and dissapearing it from non-us,
the silly regulations from the US goverment are imposed on the US emargoed
countries in an anti ethical way for two reasons:
1. Software in non-us was not developed inside the US and should not be
restricted to 'export' into other countries.
2. As I understand, the Free Software definition does not apply any sort of
exception to US embargoed countries.
So, either the Free Sofware definition gets reviewed and appends a clause
stating that free software is 'free except in US embargoed countries', or
Debian should stop saying it is Free software. Period.
Restricting redistribution to a given country is in my opinion a blatant
violation of the GPL which states that no further restrictions should be
imposed on the software covered by it.
There may be a third option which would be to move the main distribution
servers of Debian outside the US (they are all within the US right now, aren't
they?).
I understand that this issue may not be easy to digest/understand for many US
citizens, but Debian being an international effort, it seems shameful to me
that it gets 'tainted' with this political play of embargos, which have nothing
to do with the nature of Free Software and the Internet spirit of sharing and
cooperating.
I'd love to hear some input on this from people outside as well as inside the
US.
Greets.
Jose
---
Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente
Guadalajara, Jalisco. Mexico.
