Re: Moving contrib and non-free of master.debian.org
On Mon, Jul 05, 1999 at 11:30:19PM +0200, Remco Blaakmeer wrote:
> On their US computers, CheapBytes should only sell the (Official But)
> Crippled Debian CDs. They could set up www.cheapbytes.nl, selling the
> Official And Fully Working Debian CDs from an office in The Netherlands.
> That way they wouldn't need the export controls. Any US citizen importing
> the Fully Working CDs into the US would be violating the laws themselves.
The U.S. laws don't prohibit importing, just exporting. I read of a
recent case where a federal court declared the law invalid. Undoubtedly
that will be appealed to a higher court. The gub'mint has to protect
us, after all.
In the case of patented software, you could possibly be open to a civil
lawsuit for using it (you can already download it from non-us), but
they're not going after the small fish. The RSA patent would probably
expire by the time the case went to trial (I don't know when the LZW
patent expires).
>
> If your givaway is in the US, hand out the Crippled CDs, while proclaiming
> statements like "you have a democratically elected government that makes
> stupid laws". Otherwise, hand out the Fully Working CDs and just
smile.
But then you'd have to ask for i.d. (unless they are from a country
which contributes heavily to the DNC).
> But IANAL, of course.
IANAL either. My son is, but if I asked him I might get an answer I
wouldn't want to hear.
Bob
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