this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2024
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Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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It is my limited understanding that encryption beyond a certain level is illegal to export from the US. For example one of the positives of OpenBSD being based in Canada ~~was~~ is the ability to include crypto at a level that that the US wouldn’t permit to export.
From https://www.openbsd.org/crypto.html
Edit: tense
It hasn't been illegal for a while now. Encryption is protected under free speech. (The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in our favor)
Wouldn’t at the time. A lot of the restrictions on encryption algorithms themselves were loosened in the 90s after successful court cases ruling that source code was free speech.
Huh, TIL... That's cool!
There are no legal restrictions on cryptography in the US as software is protected under free speech.
That's not what a quick search and Wikipedia says. To be fair, I didn't fact check all their references:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Export_of_cryptography_from_the_United_States
https://www.eff.org/cases/bernstein-v-us-dept-justice
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernstein_v._United_States
SuSE and RH have their own legal teams who have combed through all of this and have decided not to chance it. Personally, I wouldn’t base a significant part of the foundation of any product on something as fickle as a Supreme Court ruling, especially when the product is something major from a group like SuSE or RH.
There isn't much to "chance". The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has the authority in the matter.
Some organizations just don't take no for an answer
It helps to actually read the wikipedia pages.
I did, that doesn't change anything