Free Media Issues

[Paul W. Frields]

On Fri, May 08, 2009 at 07:57:09AM +0100, Frank Murphy (Frankly3D) wrote:
> On 05/05/09 17:14, Paul W. Frields wrote:
>> On Tue, May 05, 2009 at 09:30:11PM +0530, Mani A wrote:
>>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
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>>>
>>> See this long thread titled 'What Now James?' in the freemedia list
>>> (private list)
>>> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-freemedia-list
>>>
>>> A decision needs to taken.
>>
>> I would love to review this thread so we can talk about it in the
>> Board meeting. However, I am currently waiting for my subscription
>> request to be approved.  If there is a maintainer listening who can do
>> that, I'd appreciate it.
>>
>
> When the Board does, get back to the Ambassador-List,
> with something re. this.
> Can it be more than the plain "Black & White"
> As there is a lot of passion involved.

Unfortunately, the legal guidance in this case is just that -- black
and white.

The Fedora Project is treated as any US entity or person by US law.
US law includes embargoes and other regulations that place severe
restrictions on the export of certain types of materials, including
some of the software found in Fedora, to specific nations.  (Other
general restrictions exist which probably apply to Fedora as well.)
These nations are Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Sudan, and Syria.
Therefore, we're strictly forbidden from exporting Fedora to those
nations, or from aiding in their transference.  For example, we cannot
accept requests to ship media to those nations under any part of the
Fedora Project.

This is a very unfortunate situation, and despite the Board's
sentiment, we're bound by the law.  Just to be clear, this is not a
new policy; these laws have existed for some time and Fedora has
always observed them as far as I know.

The discussion that took place in the Board's public IRC meeting can
be found here, for those that are interested:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Board/Meetings/2009-05-05

If anyone knows about any existing export law reform initiatives in
the US that concern public free software projects, please let me or
any other Board member know.

-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
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