Irrlicht and the axis of evil

randomMesh · Post by **randomMesh** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 1:19 pm

Sorry for the insane title, but since Sourceforge now allows per project setting of the "blanket block", i wanted to know how Irrlicht handles this?

http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/SourceForge-turns-off-blanket-blocking-924021.html

hybrid · Post by **hybrid** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 3:54 pm

Up to 1.6 we haven't had any restricted stuff in Irrlicht. But now we have AES and LZMA, guess it could raise problems. But only for folks in the US AFAIK. So we won't have any problem with setting this to completely unrestricted

And since we have had people from Iraq and Iran on the forum (and hence using Irrlicht) I guess there has had been some way to get Irrlicht from all around the world.

CuteAlien · Post by **CuteAlien** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 5:05 pm

I think that block has only been added a week or two ago. And after some google work it looks like with the inclusion of AES we're indeed breaking US export laws when ticking of that block. Didn't find anything about LZMA. Some posts I found hinted that the key-length used in the encryption is the main point here.

Anyway... I'm not really in any position of even _knowing_ enough about US export laws. So not sure what it means if we set/unset that box. What does happen now when we break export laws? We will be kicked from sourceforge? We will be prosecuted in the US? I hope sourceforge gives us a little more information here...

And without saying - but I still say it - that law is braindead! It basically makes it harder for those people to get encryption which need it more than anyone else - people living in states where free speech is not allowed. And I'm also certain that not a single of those states military will care about the restriction.

Dorth · Post by **Dorth** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 5:10 pm

So people that could use it and thus know how to use a proxy or such CAN get it, however, those that wouldn't use it for military purpose are the one unable to reach it? Great...

Also, wasn't this a german project?

CuteAlien · Post by **CuteAlien** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 5:22 pm

German project? Well, Austrian origins and with hybrid and me there are currently two coders from Germany in the team, but I hope the project still counts as international :-) But the problem here is probably that sourceforge is a US company. So as long as we're hosting on their servers we're likely under some influence of US laws (but I am not a lawyer...).

hybrid · Post by **hybrid** » Mon Feb 08, 2010 5:25 pm

Yeah, just checked the text on SF and it explicitly mentions encryption algorithms and also publicly available ones. So right now we seem to have an obligation to tell the US somewhat department that we have encryption onboard. Don't know what this means for people from "evil" countries. I'll leave this field ticked for now, and have send out the mail to tell those people we have some encrpytion onboard.

randomMesh · Post by **randomMesh** » Tue Feb 16, 2010 7:23 am

Despite my project's using Irrlicht (evil bad-ass terrorist encryption), i just turned that stupid blocking off. If i don't post here for a while i might be on vacation in Guantánamo.