SF and Export Regulations

[Z-Man]

SourceForge had blocked access to its site to 'Evil' states in January and is now offering projects to opt out of that block. We're neither using nor providing encryption, so I did that. Yeah, armathentication uses >64bit keys, but they're hashes. I get headaches from reading the legalese, but I think that makes the restrictions not apply to us. If anyone understands the subject matter better, feel free to correct me there.

[Phytotron]

And to think, had you not opted out, there would be an underground network of criminals and terrorists smuggling Arma into Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria who would then turn around and use it against us!

(That's not a remark directed at you, rather the law.)

[Z-Man]

Yeah, maybe we should change our slogan to "Terrorists and Evil Dictators Welcome".

[Lucifer]

There's no telling what they would do with this game. They might hijack some light cycles and crash them into important American monuments! Watch out for that wall!

[Z-Man]

Oh noes!

[sinewav]

hahahaha!

[Phytotron]

Instant classic.

[Cosmic Dolphin]

And then, the CIA knocks on Z-Man's door...immediately hand-cuffed, he is charged with trying to blow up buildings by running into them with light-cycle with a torpedo inside of it. Armagetron is closed down forever and all players are arrested.

[Phytotron]

Don't forget the "Extraordinary rendition."

[<^v{}v^>]

LOL armagetron cycles are so dangerous
the point is, armagetron is open source so i think it isn't bent to US law
(since sourceforge is a open source platform which could be in any other country)
like for example any 'evil' state can use linux...

(this is just my opinion it might be else...)

[epsy]

It's not because you might be in the ocean being a pirate that law doesn't forbid you to kill.

[<^v{}v^>]

what i mean is in some countrys there are things allowed which are forbidden in others...

[Z-Man]

Thing is, SF is US based. The primary servers reside there. Therefore, US law applies, OS or not, international development team or not. And US law puts restrictions on exports and re-exports of strong encryption software. If we had packet encryption built in, the law would surely forbid us to re-export the source to 'rogue' states.