Re: lynx-dev Alert: this client does not contain support for HTTPS urls.

[Al Gilman]

to follow up on what Steven M. Sawczyn said:

> Maybe I'm totally confused, but how can Microsoft Explorer as well as
> NetScape support these crazy HTTPS URLS without fear of being sold
> outside the US?  Also, how can non-US residents access these https
> sites?  Maybe I'm confusing htis with something else.  Maybe I'm just
> totally confused at this point.

Well, the problem is not that simple.

There is an oil-and-water incompatibility between the crypto
libraries, whose distribution must be controlled (by US law), and
the rest of Lynx, where the distribution must be full and free
(per the terms of the GNU public license).  It is impossible to
create a single compiled image (derived work) which is faithful
to both sets of license terms which claim to govern the child of
these two parents.

IE and Netscape don't have the GPL obligations.  The US law is
set up to deal with commercial, licensed software.  It is not set
up to deal with GPL-ed, free software like Lynx, or vice versa.

Al