Re: [gentoo-project] OT Merging Trustees and Council / Developers and Foundation

[William L. Thomson Jr.]

On Friday, January 6, 2017 11:48:57 AM EST Andreas K. Huettel wrote:
> Am Donnerstag, 5. Januar 2017, 17:14:51 CET schrieb William L. Thomson Jr.:
> > Keep in mind the US is founded on freedom of speech. An open source
> > project
> > could be argued along the same lines as freedom of speech and expression.
> > Not to mention an argument could be made for technical benefit of all,
> > etc.
>
> As someone routinely dealing (outside Gentoo) with technology that falls
> under US export control, I can assure you that freedom of speech has
> absolutely nothing to do with this topic.

Closed or open source software?

Most any restricted under export tends to be closed source. The US supreme 
court has already ruled on this matter regarding open source.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernstein_v._United_States

"After four years and one regulatory change, the Ninth Circuit Court of 
Appeals ruled that software source code was speech protected by the First 
Amendment and that the government's regulations preventing its publication 
were unconstitutional."

https://epic.org/crypto/export_controls/bernstein_decision_9_cir.html

This was established in 1999. I love how non-US citizens like to tell US 
citizens about US Laws. It is very rare that supreme court rulings are 
overturned. To my knowledge this stands to this day. Any case brought to any 
court would defer to that case for precedence.

Now specific to Andreas being a nuclear researcher it is possible being in a 
sensitive field that there are further restrictions. Given the uses of nuclear 
technology and potential harm even for power generation. It would make sense 
for there to be restrictions. While Germany is an ally, there are export 
restrictions there, etc. Though none of that would apply to open source 
software, and you have the right to release source code, and it is protected 
under free speech.

-- 
William L. Thomson Jr.