>   If you wish to argue that the inability of a particular piece of code to
> be used without license in the USA prevents it from being stored in on a
> machine in Finland, then you are arguing that cryptosrc-intl can not be
> created in Finland by non-Americans because American law applies to
> non-Americans.
> 
>   If so, then cryptosrc-intl is *IN OF ITSELF* contrary to the project's goals.

I don't think Jason is arguing this. He's bringing up IDEA etc because
unlike the export-curtain, the patent is valid in a number of
countries, not easily defined as a discrete geographic or political
block that can be delt with as easily as we have delt with US export
controls.

However not distributing IDEA source code, in the international
version, seems excessively paranoid. Dozens of other freeware projects
feel no such limitation, OpenSSL and ssh included. CDROM distributors
of major source-code repositories feel no such hesitation. It is not
economically useful or politically astute for Ascom to go after
NetBSD, Inc for some sort of contributory infringement.

The worst case scenario is that some company massively ships NetBSD
with IDEA libraries built from NetBSD source and placed in some
frequently used application, sells it in a country where the IDEA
patent is valid, and then refuses to cut a deal with Ascom. If Ascom
sues, the infringing company could (stupidly) enjoin NetBSD, Inc in
some legal suit in a last-ditch effort to defect some of its
culpability.

Even if this *fantastically unlikely* event took place, our defence is
strong -- the infringing company would have had to manually enable
building of IDEA, which we had disabled by default inorder to protect
Ascom's patents.

It's worth while pointing out that unless we get pro-bono
representation (which probably would not be truly pro-bono.. no doubt
someone would be using up a valuable favour), any litigation we are
involved in is likely to cost far more in legal bills than the
monetary hurt inflicted by the resulting judgement, and far more
than NetBSD, Inc is worth.

However in such a circumstance, NetBSD, Inc [US] is expendable. As our
only true asset is our code-base and reputation, no doubt some
sympathisers in a more hospitable regulatory climate would very
quickly appropriate both.