Spring RTS Engine

According to a tidbit released by SourceForge, the U.S. government has created/is enforcing regulations regarding the distribution of open source software to users in certain countries.

Unsurprisingly, these countries include: North Korea, Syria, Iran, Cuba, and Sudan.

Why is the U.S. government (and not to point the finger -- the UN is completely behind this as usual) dictating that ordinary citizens in these countries are not allowed to download free, open-source software based on their foreign policy standards? Why are they telling us who we are and aren't allowed to share free stuff with?

Didn't know that yet. Any links? It wouldn't surprise me though...

The irony is that the country most known for committing cyber-attacks against the USA is not on that list.

(Hint: they make all our stuff).

It's (supposedly) about encryption algorithms:

Export Controls:

This project does NOT incorporate, access, call upon, or otherwise use encryption of any kind, including, but not limited to, open source algorithms and/or calls to encryption in the operating system or underlying platform.

This project DOES incorporate, access, call upon or otherwise use encryption. Posting of open source encryption is controlled under U.S. Export Control Classification Number "ECCN" 5D002 and must be simultaneously reported by email to the U.S. government. You are responsible for submitting this email report to the U.S. government in accordance with procedures described in: http://www.bis.doc.gov/encryption/PubAv ... otify.html and Section 740.13(e) of the Export Administration Regulations ("EAR") 15 C.F.R. Parts 730-772.

Stupidly I deleted the email about it. It defaults to the latter option, btw. Here's the bit of email i pasted to Spiked:

Hello SourceForge project administrator,

SourceForge has project settings to help you comply with regulations
governing distribution of software to persons from certain countries
(aka Export Controls). We've had some recent questions about these
settings, so have sent out this note to all administrators to make
sure all projects have this information.

By default, software downloads initiated by visitors from Sudan, North
Korea, Syria, Iran and Cuba are blocked.

Maybe sourceforge is based in the USA, and as such is subject to US law? Which mean that open source software hosted in other countries (for instance, Spring server are somewhere in eastern or northern europe) are not subject to it.


Anyway, since about forever, and in about every country on earth, encryption is considered a military technology, and as such is heavily controlled, and forbidden unless the state can decode it. Which is indeed a bit stupid. And also cause quite some headache for lawful companies in this internet age that require some much use of encrypted communication.


I suggest you canadians get down to washington and burn their capitol down until the right to encryption becomes recognised as an unalienable freedom in both american and UN constitution.


Also in before right wing nutters comes tell us it's to quell terrorism. Because, yeah, international class terrorists can't find encryption if it's forbidden by US law, while ordinary criminal would have no trouble finding firearms were they forbidden.

Guys, I hate to put it this way, but government concern with this isn't about secure email. The governments lost that one years ago, and until quantum stuff works well enough to break it in a reasonable timeframe again, it's a dead issue.

This is about Open Source crypto stuff that's specifically designed for cell phones, radios, and satellite communication- the stuff the NSA has to tap into, in order to do what it does. There's been a lot more of that made since Android, amongst other things, so I'm not really surprised that they're concerned enough to tell SourceForge to be a bit more cautious on this subject, since the Open Source people were the ones that have made secured email, etc., pretty much untouchable, and none of the governments are happy about that.

Moreover, this is just a smallish segment of a rather nasty arms race. The revelations about how the NSA were hacking into Al Qaeda's cell phones and breaking the standard cellular crypto, then using it to pinpoint the people using the phones for Predator strikes has no doubt caused a certain amount of... concern in many circles.

It wont matter that much since the encryption to communicate over the standard cell entwork is broken, and I doubt the average al qaeda terrorists are running around with expensive jailbroken iPhones and HTC smartphones.

The ones that they really need to worry about are going to be able to circumvent and ignore these restrictions, and I'm sure they've cottoned onto things like encrypted skype chats, or AES.

I think they should focus their efforts more on encrypting military traffic sent over old US satelites that transmit in the clear, which are being used by taliban insurgents to hack into US drones and steal satelite imagery, nm the thousands of Brazilians using them for pirate radio and free long distance telephone calls

I doubt if they care about that stuff, AF. Those old Hughes birds are too ancient to fix, and satellite imagery databases are easy enough to access anyhow.

The "hacking into drones" thing is interesting, though. Has that actually happened?

[EDIT]Yes, that actually happened. Clever![/EDIT]

EDIT: Apparently.

Also, this saves the U.S. from having to contribute more explicit aid to South America, don't you know.

zwzsg wrote:Also in before right wing nutters comes tell us it's to quell terrorism. Because, yeah, international class terrorists can't find encryption if it's forbidden by US law, while ordinary criminal would have no trouble finding firearms were they forbidden.

Hate to break it to you Z, by right wingers are by and large opposed to government controls. Left wingers are the ones that want the government to be able to control everything. Please, get your facts straight before making such statements.

Not really. The one who don't want goverment are called anarchist, and they couldn't be further from the right.

The difference is more that right wingers want the governement to use tax money to wage war, and the left wingers want the governement to use tax money to pay teachers.

Wow. You're crazy.

I fail to see how restricting access to OSS helps anyone. The people who need powerful encryption will get it SourceForge ban or no. Such bans only affect harmless civilians in those countries. ~~

Right leaning mainstream parties in the United States favour control over social behaviour, contrasted with economic freedom. Left leaning mainstream parties in the United States favour control over economic behaviour, contrasted with social freedom. Basic political science here.

Now, this is just my interpretation, but I see anarchism as an extreme meeting point between comparatively common reactionary and radical positions on the American political stage, such as Libertarianism and Communism respectively, similar to both in that it is not functional.

If you don't wish to discuss a topic in a mature manner, don't discuss it at all.

~~~

I agree, Teut.

Here, a little reminder picture for those who can't tell apart their left from their right:


Click to enlarge

hehe so the conservatives are the ones that actually make the country tick?
XD
Is there really a connection between tough love and being a conservative ??lol

Because that image isn't a total load of bs at all... Left wing is NOT for personal freedoms. That one actually made me laugh.

zwzsg wrote: Anyway, since about forever, and in about every country on earth, encryption is considered a military technology, and as such is heavily controlled, and forbidden unless the state can decode it.

Not true.

well in a way....all software in those countries are open sourced, since copyright is not protected there(well ,not in the way it is here)

and thinking that people in those countries will not get thier hands on open sorce is just stupid

in iran there is this whole (legal) industry based on selling cd's with cracked programs(well at lest there was from as far i i know)

imo, this legislation functions more like a piece of propaganda in order to further demonize those nations and show them as the ultimate enemy(and at times even dehumanize and stereotype the people living there)

also......there is more to the left....where are they anarchists mate....

angel: freedom to economicly exploit has nothing to do with personal freedom....

Are you aware of the fact that simply having a garage sale in the US could land you in prison?

You can thank your wonderful neighborhood washington liberals for that. And this is only a tiny example.