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Mozilla Firefox Not In Violation of US Export Rules
darthcamaro writes "While the internet may know no borders, the US government does. There are a number of rules that affect software vendors, including encryption export regulations from the US Department of Commerce and export sanctions by the Department of Treasury. But what do you do when your application is open source and freely available to anyone in the world? Do the same the rules apply? It's a question that Mozilla asked the US government about. The answer they received could have profound implications not just for Firefox but for all open source software vendors. 'We really couldn't accept the notion that these government rules could jeopardize the participatory nature of an open source project, so we sought to challenge it,' Harvey Anderson, VP and General Counsel of Mozilla, told InternetNews.com. 'We argued that First Amendment free speech rights would prevail in this scenario. The government took our filing and then we got back a no-violation letter, which is fantastic.'"
Or some way to break the encryption, eg. they've got the boss of Verisign in their back pocket.
No sig today...
However, that exemption is nullified if the source code is distributed to any of the countries on the U.S embargo list, such as Cuba, Iran or North Korea.
Huh. I didn't realize that Cuba, Iran, and North Korea didn't have any mathematicians or anyone else that is capable of developing their own cryptography. Or that other countries that do not have a problem with those particular countries do not have that expertise either. I guess the US has a monopoly on that talent. It's a good thing that the US Government is embargoing crypto. It worked great for nuclear bomb technology after all!
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
Oh wow... Either /. searches and penalises for the letters f-i-r-s-t appearing in a primary post, or I just got bitchslapped at the speed of light.
I apologise.
Also, I should also mention the fact that legislation against encryption is ridiculously counter-productive; if the feds are after someone for any good reason, and that person is a criminal, they aren't going to respect such a restriction if they're already violating more serious laws. If all they succeed in doing is reducing legitimate commercial trade in such products, they're hurting themselves but at the same time improving the market tremendously for illicit dealers (note this observation applies to drugs as well, hmm).
... that an innovative business like Mozilla needs to live in fear of the government and nervously await its blessing.
About the XKCD... munitions yeah, but do you think it's the sort of munitions they'd let you have? The military already got a lot of neat stuff you don't get to play with.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
but that thought, or words on a page, are very simply not munitions, disingenuous government definitions be damned.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Getting an approval by local laws saying that local laws don't apply? Looks pretty much to the liar paradox. Or local laws (as in US country laws, like the ones that forbids exporting crypto) don't apply or apply (like the US country laws that gives the 1st amendment),
If you want to push that open source projects, developed with the cooperation from people from all countries are not restricted to the laws of a single country, thats ok, no need to put a country-specific 1st amendment to justify it. Else the exporting crypto restrictions could be applied but was made an exception in hat case.
Crypto just takes some smart folks to create it. I get the impression that the US Government doesn't believe that people outside its borders are capable of developing their own.
It's NOT me! It's the meds! I'm on 1000mg of Fukitol.
They probably wanted a clear, black-on-white reply that they could present to court or to potential litigators should any threat arise. Better safe than sorry, they say?
Right, criminals will still use it but the majority of the citizenry wouldn't and who is it the NSA is spying on again?
Quack, quack.
I know I'm taking that cartoon way too seriously, but what the hell. The 2nd amendment doesn't guarantee people to right to export arms from the US. :-) US citizens already have the ability to 'keep and bear crypto', WITHIN the US.
== Jez ==
Do you miss Firefox? Try Pale Moon.