Re: criticism about hosting download packages

PostgreSQL - Hans-Jrgen Schnig wrote:
> On Feb 24, 2011, at 12:33 AM, Bruce Momjian wrote:
>
> > Susanne Ebrecht wrote:
> >> On 22.02.2011 20:53, Joshua D. Drake wrote:
> >>> Right but that isn't our concern. EDB should and can do whatever they
> >>> wish with that download page. It is up to the community to decide
> >>> whether or not how they handle it is reasonable.
> >>
> >> As long as it is legal.
> >>
> >> Fishing for addresses is illegal in most European countries.
> >>
> >> The way EDB tries it might not be illegal - but it is hard at the limit
> >> of being illegal.
> >>
> >> It could end with - that you won't be able to download the packages
> >> from all countries - because countries forbid accessing the page.
> >>
> >> Just my 2 ct and many thousands thanks for all your answers,
> >
> > FYI, it is already not possible to download those installers from
> > countries embargoed by the USA, e.g. Syria, because EDB is headquartered
> > in the USA and has servers in the USA.
>
>
> with all my personal respect i have for you, bruce ... if EDB wants
> to turn neutral people in passionate enemies, this is the way to go
> ... even the mere existence of this discussion shows that there is
> obviously something going seriously wrong - it is actually the first
> time that i have seen a discussion about a commercial company doing
> something like that the way it is done now ... (at least i don't
> remember anything similar).
>
> first of all: i did some cross checking with legal stuff here this
> evening and what susanne says seems to be true according to some quick
> investigation. i don't want to elaborate on the details here and i
> don't want to add 500 more argument why this simply sucks ... just
> one final word: stop this kind of stuff ... and do it now ...

Hans, I am not sure what part of my email you are commenting on, but
based on your quote of my email above I assume is it the embargoed
countries like Syria. We did have an email thread about this in June of
2010:

http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-www/2010-06/msg00046.php

The conclusion was that there is no way to distribute files produced by
any USA company to embargoed countries like Syria. It isn't a crypto
issue but just any software:

http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-www/2010-06/msg00137.php

Not sure what we can do about this except try to get a non-USA company
to produce installers.

If it is the email registration page that is bothering you, I only
stated that the community has a choice to link to EDB or not. I assume
the community can ask for the page to be changed, and EDB can agree or
not. If they don't agree, the community can live with it or stop
linking to it.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

+ It's impossible for everything to be true. +