[OSGeo-Discuss] on Google Code and export restrictions

[Landon Blake]

It certainly looks like the folks at Apache have done a great job being
proactive on this particular topic. They've even assigned most of their
projects an ECCN, whatever that is:

http://www.bis.doc.gov/licensing/do_i_needaneccn.html

I wonder if it would be best to handle the export policy/compliance with
US law or other bodies of law on a case-by-case basis, in the context of
a broader policy like the one used by Apache.

I would even suggest that we have a representative of the OSGeo contact
the BIS or other interested agencies to clarify exactly what their
concerns with our organization might be, and what our responsibilities
are under the law. We may be surprised at how helpful they are.

Maybe it's overkill, but I'm thinking it might not be a bad idea to have
a committee that handles compliance with US and international law. It
might also be worth sending an e-mail to the Software Conservancy to see
if they could offer free legal services to the OSGeo in this regard.

http://conservancy.softwarefreedom.org/

Landon


-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Frank Warmerdam
Sent: Monday, May 26, 2008 11:15 AM
To: OSGeo Discussions
Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] on Google Code and export restrictions

jo at frot.org wrote:
> On Mon, May 26, 2008 at 09:11:17AM -0700, Jason Birch wrote:
>>    A more disturbing question is whether OSGeo, being a US non-profit
using
>>    servers hosted in the US, also has a legal obligation to ensure
that we
>>    aren't exporting code in contravention of US export policy.
> 
> I asked on the FLOSS foundations list[0] if others have run across
> similar potential legal issues and got a link to the terrifically
> thorough ASF approach: http://www.apache.org/licenses/exports/
> So it seems worthwhile for OSGeo to develop a similar policy.

Jo,

I agree that we ought to consider developing a similar policy to
Apache's.  I'll add an agenda item for the next board meeting to
start digging into this.

> I agree with Miguel that the [[  the point is not to set-up
> alternative sites, but to promote the use of fully accesible sites, 
> with no restrictions ]] - i'm looking at http://www.berlios.de/
> for a rehouse of a googlecode project. 

I don't really see how OSGeo can deliberately export to embargoed
nations.  But it is unclear to me yet how much effort we are expected
to put into stopping embargoed nations from getting our stuff.  It seems
that Google is going to substantially more effort than most
organizations
have.

Best regards,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------
------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam,
warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo,
http://osgeo.org

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