USA export restrictions and GPL - how can they co-exist?

[Les]

On Sat, 2007-08-11 at 01:56 -0400, Matthew Flaschen wrote:
> Peter Lemenkov wrote:
> > Hello  All!
> > I found recently this restriction:
> > 
> > http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Distribution/Download/ExportRegulations
> > 
> > =============================
> > 
> > By clicking on and downloading Fedora, you agree to comply with the
> > following terms and conditions:
> > 
> > Fedora software and technical information is subject to the U.S.
> > Export Administration Regulations and other U.S. and foreign law, and
> > may not be exported or re-exported to certain countries (currently
> > Cuba, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan and Syria)
> 
> This does seem like a "further restriction" that the GPL doesn't permit.
>  Of course, even without this notice it would still violate U.S. law to
> export software to Cuba.  But the point is that it is not Fedora/Red
> Hat's place to impose this restriction, and by doing so they seem to be
> violating the GPL.
> 
But Fedora/Redhat is not imposing this, the government is.  And the
whole point of GPL is to remain legal for patent and copyright, not
international trade restrictions due to technical content, which is
another whole different can of worms, not just in the US, but in every
country of the world.  Every country wants to keep some bit of its
technical capability restricted to itself and "allies" note that I
quoted the term because today's allies are tomorrows enemies in many
cases.

Regards,
Les H

Regards,
Les H