re: Should we take steps to reduce russian access to Free Software?

[Arthur Torrey]

Much as we might want to shut off the Russians, I don't think this is something 
that the GPL type licenses allow...  This has come up time and time again in 
regards to limiting access to all sorts of other undesirables, and the bottom 
line is that as long as they are complying w/ the licenses (i.e. copylefting 
changes, etc.) they can't be cut off...

An ironic / amusing question I remember being raised a while back: Is the 
question about if Free Software is used in a 'smart' weapon, (smart bomb 
guidance system, drone, etc.); and an intact device falls into the hands of the 
enemy, does that count as 'distribution' and entitle the enemy to demand the 
corresponding source code?

ART

================
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2022 08:04:30 +0000
From: Jacob Hrbek <kreyren@rixotstudio.cz>
To: Leah Rowe via libreplanet-discuss
        <libreplanet-discuss@libreplanet.org>
Subject: Should we take steps to reduce russian access to Free
        Software?
Message-ID: <25b59d57-597d-4ef4-9e93-2c067a1d81fc@rixotstudio.cz>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; Format="flowed"

Today russian forces invaded ukraine and started an unprovoked war with
free software being used across russia and in the government thus
playing a major role in russia's war capabilities.

Should we and can we take steps to prevent/reduce russia's access to our
software?



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Arthur Torrey - <arthur_torrey@comcast.net>
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