HI folks,
After reading the license and the Debian Free License guidelines, I am
puzzled by the following: (at http://www.mozilla.org/releases/)
This source code is subject to the U.S. Export Administration Regulations
and other U.S. law, and may not be exported or re-exported to certain
countries (currently Afghanistan (Taliban controlled areas), Cuba, Iran,
Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Serbia (except Kosovo), Sudan and Syria) or to
persons or entities prohibited from receiving U.S. exports (including
Denied Parties, entities on the Bureau of Export Administration Entity
List, and Specially Designated Nationals).
---
This seems to conflict with The Debian Free Software Guidelines:
--
5- No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.
--
Is this just a legal thing to cover your behinds? Having the legal
disclaimer on the download page hardly stops someone in those countries
from using Mozilla... and someone posting software can't be held
responsible for who downloads it.
Since I believe the people in those countries can use the internet to help
get rid of some of the assholes governing them, it seems a shame that the
US gov would try to bar browsers. (I know a bit about Iraq... for 10 years
they banned pencils and hypodermic needles, 'cause you can use them to
make bombs...). If Americans must post the US Exports reminder, would you
consider a way of contextualizing it to poke fun at it?
Cheers,
Daniel.
----
Elegance: Killing many stones with one bird.
Daniel's home page. Not quite as profound, perhaps worth a visit
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ah813/
