On Sun, 20 May 2007, dreamwvr wrote:
> > --
> > Mark Reitblatt
> >
> The entire world is not the US. The entire world AND the US is addressed
> by OpenBSD.
Mr Reitblatt should be advised that there are some of us in the USA
that are quite pleased with and in fact grateful for a reliable,
free and open source of crypto software from *outside* the USA.
The thicket of law, regulation, executive decree and "discretionary
interpretation" by bureaucrats, administrative law judges and others
in this country is legendary, and growing more tangled with every
sea change in politics. The idea that "democracy" can remedy this
situation is charmingly naive and dangerously unrealistic. "Democracy"
brought this situation about.
Mr Reitblatt seems to believe that to be arrested, sued or otherwise
harassed, drained of one's resources, and then finally, after years
of litigation and other forms of immiseration (crypto export is a
*crime*, involving prison), vindicated, is the same as having been
left in peace initially. In the technical sense only, this is
correct. This is the sort of Pyrrhic victory that only lawyers on
retainer celebrate.
My initial reaction to Mr Reitblatt was to wonder if he was a
provacateur from a US government department intending to "plug a
security loophole". This view is not justified, but the fact that
I had it is itself indicative of the climate here concerning such
issues -- this is now a country in which bank transactions less
than about a month's wages (anything over 5000 USD!) are reported
to "authorities". Everywhere one looks, one is being looked at by
some "security entity".
OpenBSD might find itself "vindicated" if it began distribution
from the US. It might find itself bankrupted, too. It might find
its hardware vanished into the black hole of an "evidence locker"
or "impound lot". There is very little satisfaction in being
ruined and right. The risk/reward ratio is absolutely stunning.
Executive summary: There is no *need* for OpenBSD to enter this
meat grinder, so there is no *reason* to do it!
Stay Canadian, gents, and stay out of the US. Others would do well
to follow OpenBSD's example!
Dave
--
Resistance is futile. You've already been assimilated.
