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Re: LYNX-DEV SSL export license


From: David Woolley
Subject: Re: LYNX-DEV SSL export license
Date: Fri, 4 Jul 1997 08:36:19 +0100 (BST)

> 
> BTW, how hard would it be to get a regular export license from US
> authorites? Perhaps the FSF could ask for it?

Export licenses are usually issued for each shipment.  Where cryptography
is concerned, the licence would almost certainly void the GPL in the
destination country, by forbidding redistribution, and therefore not be
of much interest to the FSF.

I don't know whether some form of class licence or an exemption is used for
40 bit versions of software, but the US authorities are likely to be
unhappy about source being distributed, because they cannot effectively
limit redistribution to countries like Iraq, which are on their absolutely
banned list for technology exports (commercial software license often
explicitly ban re-export to such countries).

It is often also very easy to remove arbitrary restrictions from source
code software.

> 
> Talking about FSF, what would it require to put lynx on prep.ai.mit.edu?
> Does lynx have to be (C) FSF, or is it enough when it's distributed under
> the terms of GPL and the copyright is held by the authors?

FSF copyright isn't needed (they carry Berkeley copyright stuff, and
several other third party programs).  What I think they do require is that
the intellectual property rights situation is watertight, which probably
means tracking down all the copyright owners and getting them to confirm
their permissions.  In the past, they have also said that they really
need an identifiable legal entity which could realistically take legal
action for breach of copyright, to pose some deterrent to the more 
scrupulous businesses that might want to breach the licence.  (At the time,
I think the Lynx copyright statement failed to identify the copyright owner.)
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