[okfn-discuss] Export Controls and OKD § 7.

[Benj. Mako Hill]

<quote who="Luis Villa" date="Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 08:09:50AM -0700">
> Generally speaking in the FOSS context we don't put it in the
> licenses, we leave it up to the distributors. Since the distributors
> have no obligation to distribute to everyone- just to distribute
> source to whoever *they choose* to distribute binaries to- there is
> considered to be no problem.

There are licenses that are otherwise free but include a statement that
states or implies users must obey export regulations and obtain
permission or violate the license. These are definitely problematic and
(IMHO) probably non-free.

> That said, I don't know what OSI has said about more explicit export
> control clauses in licenses. The wise and aged wordsmiths there might
> have found a way around it, don't know.

The FSF has had conversations about this over the last few months.
Discussion between parties and within the FSF is still ongoing. In any
case, I suspect it's far too focused on the language of specific
licenses to be of any more help to the general issue.

Regards,
Mako


-- 
Benjamin Mako Hill
mako at atdot.cc
http://mako.cc/

Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so far
as society is free to use the results. --GNU Manifesto
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