Author: Gregory Maxwell 2012-10-14 22:33:19
Published on: 2012-10-14T22:33:19+00:00
In this email exchange, Christian Decker is asking for information on the specific laws regarding the use of cryptography in their project. The only known restrictions are the EAR restrictions on the export of cryptography, which do not apply to them because they only use cryptography for authentication. Moreover, since the Bernstein vs US case, there have been no enforcement attempts against open source projects as these regulations cannot inhibit the publication of source code. Christian also mentions finding someone who is in a more permissive country, but it is hard to find places with better effective law for most online and internet things. Although many countries copy the US's statutes, they do so without copying the legislative history, which is generally highly protective. For example, Australia has copied the US munitions regulations exactly but has no analog of Bernstein v. US to limit the government's power.Finally, Christian notes that SourceForge was vague about what regulations they believe they're enforcing, and he plans to get in touch with the EFF to find out if there are any particular precautions they should take.
Updated on: 2023-05-19T15:54:04.949495+00:00