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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.
ahahahahahahHAHAHAAHAAHA
I think that the embargo is stale - and that Cuba actually would be hurt a lot more today if it was suddenly lifted.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
That silly embargo is still active?
Sheesh, you'd think they'd be over the hole sugar thing by now.
- Don't do what I do, it's probably not healthy nor safe. -
Aside from the "mobile" angle (a valid question), you asked them about a bunch of restrictions they didn't impose.
It doesn't count as stonewalling to offer no response to "have you stopped beating your wife yet?".
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?
The best thing to do when the consequences are multiple huntreds of thousands of dollars, or more, in fines and jail time is to NEVER try it and see unless you have a good idea on what would happen.
When you cant win, ad hominem.
The law was put in a Locked filing cabinet, in a disused bathroom, with a sign written on it saying "Beware of the leopard"
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Steel drums, sugar, rum, sun and sand, classic cars. These are the things you think of when you think of Cuba. Software? Only one type of customer would ask this question: People with plans to outsource to Cuba.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
You first.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
It always used to crack me up back in the day how Americans used to brag about how one of the big advantages to FREE America was that citizens could travel anywhere (as opposed to the evil USSR).
"Oh yeah? Try traveling to Cuba then, Captain Freedom"
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
It's easier to get to Cuba for a quick meeting than, say, India.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
What about the apple app store cut / payout system how does that fit in this.
I would rather have a Cuban sandwich. They are delicious.
Set up a design center in India and hire good engineers and you will benefit from the skills the country has to offer. We did.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
But really, who'd want to buy new software made out of refurbished bits and parts of old cold war -era Cobol and Ada source code hacked together with with Bondo compilers and chicken wire linkers?
You asked them to clarify a definition. The government rarely comments on such matters. Now you're left with a completely ambiguous legal interpretation.
Instead ask the question: "I'm doing this, are you okay with it?" The action implies that someone makes a decision on the definition. When the no-comment comes back you can take that as no objection and that is somewhat defensible as it was specific to your case.
I just bought the dirt-cheapest GPS module around, a uBlox NEO-6M. It shipped from China, as you might imagine. Unlike most other listings, it had an export warning that said I couldn't send it to the Sudan. Hilarious.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
ignorance of the law is no excuse.
It is if you are a corporation. Been there, seen it happen.
One department signs a document promising a regulatory agency "Nope. We don't do that." The next department goes right ahead and does it. An individual would have to claim multiple personality disorder to get away with this. But companies do it all the time.
Have gnu, will travel.
Who needs editors?
My sources say no.
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
Because of internet lacking in places, I import my cuban software on tiny memory cards inside cigars.
Buying might still be illegal, but pirating it likely is not ... cough ... cough.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Try Again Later.
Once I circled the US. Prolly 6000 miles or so. I never had to show my papers. I moved to different cities and states in my life. Never had to get approval.
Works for me.
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
Same thing in Russia, traveling within the confined space of a single nation has never been a problem.
It's a problem in Russia. Russian citizen can't travel within Russia without having to show his internal passport everywhere. Train tickets for example, you can't buy them without showing your passport. Air tickets. Police checking documents. Hotels. Everywhere. Recently Duma (law making "rabid printer") wanted to enforce passport control even for buying inter-city bus tickets!
And if you fail to show your passport to cops they detain you "until they find out your identity". A few months ago I went to police station to file papers (some dorks scratched my car at night and my insurance company demanded police papers to confirm that crime happened) and saw a bunch of asians behind bars. Waited a lot for my papers and listened for many stories for people being arrested because of no papers. And nobody cares about 2 hours limit unless lawyer appears there.
Which I'm all for btw.