Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 04:06:52 -0400 (EDT) From: Trevor Johnson <trevor@jpj.net> To: Chuck Robey <chuckr@picnic.mat.net> Cc: Satoshi - Ports Wraith - Asami <asami@FreeBSD.ORG>, "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.osd.bsdi.com>, "Chris D. Faulhaber" <jedgar@fxp.org>, freebsd-ports@FreeBSD.ORG, jkh@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Export controlled ports Message-ID: <Pine.BSI.4.21.0007120010381.24115-100000@blues.jpj.net> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0007112353340.71063-100000@picnic.mat.net>
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> How do you know that FreeBSD users would want this? Have you asked any? I don't know any of the FreeBSD users who live in those countries. I've mentioned this to four people in private, and now I'm bringing it up on the list. > Trevor asked me to start a separate non-crypto version of the ctm lists, > and I asked him that; never did get an answer, but I did find out that he > said he wouldn't be interested in such a feed for himself. I've answered all the e-mails I've gotten from you about this, and resent my latest reply in case it didn't reach you. My suggestion was that, if you wanted not to make life more difficult for people in those countries, you could continue to provide your service without the crypto, eBones, kerberos5 or secure sources. I've never run a ctm server, so maybe I'm underestimating how difficult it would be to keep offering the same thing you always did. I don't live in any of those places, and I'm not even using CTM at the moment. I just wanted you to have a chance to consider the problem. > Trevor, if FreeBSD users don't ask for it, then it's not going to get > done. I think the first task for you is to prove that folks want it, not > that there are a few governments who would want to dictate to us. My impression is that the FreeBSD team usually does not encourage users to disobey laws, even bad ones. For instance, in /usr/ports/LEGAL there's a request that we not "invite needless problems" by ignoring licenses. So far, the cryptographic code has been separated, to comply with the laws of the United States. Now that those have changed, taking advantage by starting to export those packages sounds great. However, with some small measure such as naming those packages with a special prefix, or putting them in a separate directory, people in the repressive countries I listed could avoid downloading them, and everyone else could go ahead with little or no difficulty. Another possibility is that someone could maintain a list of the crypto packages. Then operators of FTP servers in countries which restrict imports--ftp.cn.freebsd.org and ftp.ru.freebsd.org for example--could use the list to avoid mirroring those files. The affected users shouldn't be afraid to say they want to abide by their own countries' laws. I don't expect any to go so far as to say those laws are good. :-) Cheers. -- Trevor Johnson http://jpj.net/~trevor/gpgkey.txt To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-ports" in the body of the message
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