Is Buying Cuban Software Legal In the US? The Answer is Hazy (blogspot.com)

lpress writes: The Treasury Department recently issued new regulations authorizing "the importation of Cuban-origin mobile applications and the employment of Cuban nationals by persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction to develop such mobile applications." Great, but that is ambiguous, so I asked Treasury some follow-up questions: why is the rule restricted to mobile apps, what is the definition of a mobile app and can the Cuban developer work for a Cuban cooperative or government enterprise or must it be an individual? The answers were mostly "no comment" so the best way to clarify the situation is to try it and see what happens.

Comments

Mobile "apps" and the rise of the toy computer

[jabberw0k]

Only mobile "apps" are permitted? Really? Why does it feel like we are headed toward outlawing running real "programs" on your own self-controlled computer? Clearly software not approved by Google or Microsoft or Apple is a national security risk. Jailbreaking a toy computer to run un-approved programs, much less write your own, will be a crime. The dumbing-down of the proletariat will be complete when everyone carries a toy computer, also known as a telescreen, that can't be turned off, oh wait, we already have that. How did we let this happen?