Perry said, in private mail:
> There are a lot of open source projects out there which are confused
> about how they have to behave with respect to current practices. Do we
> have to alert the BXA just about our whole anon cvs repository once?
> Can we export binaries of our open source stuff without review? (It
> appears we can export imported binaries without review.) etc.,
> etc. When do the regs come into effect?
>
> If EFF could produce a good legal FAQ for open source projects on
> crypto issues in the new BXA world, it would be a wonderful thing. I
> know that several projects I'm involved in (such as NetBSD) are
> currently wondering what we can and can't do, and when.
The regs come into effect immediately, once published in the Federal
Register (they've been submitted, and will probably pop out on Friday).
It turns out that a month ago I wrote a draft FAQ and submitted it to
the Commerce Dept to help them clear their thinking about how open
source would be affected by their (then draft) regulations. I urged
them to put such a FAQ into the regulations, like the official Q&A
section in "Supplement No. 1 to Part 734--Questions and
Answers--Technology Subject to the EAR". That old supplement clarified
a bunch of issues about public domain, published information, etc --
but not about software.
I never heard anything back from them about my FAQ, but I heard today
that they are working on their own FAQ about the new regulations,
which they hope to release within a few days.
My FAQ is not definitive (the answers it gives won't help you if you
ever have to go to court) and may be actually incorrect in spots,
while a judge will take notice of theirs. And mine applied to draft
regulations, while theirs will be for the real ones (which have
changed somewhat). I am waiting to see what they come out with before
trying to re-work my old ones into something matching the new regs.
If theirs is sufficiently uninformative or confusing, I may try it --
but let's hope for the best from our government. They *did* try to
move things pretty far for open source, despite nobody there knowing
exactly how open source development really works. I'm hopeful that
they will be able to explain how it works in words of two sylla bles
as well.
John
