Sybase or Biological Weapons? You Stand at a Crossroad #
Ha, the projectionists make me snigger when they post a license agreement snip which forbids users of a certain database from participating in plain old atypical terrorist activities.
BY DOWNLOADING AND USING SYBASE SOFTWARE, YOU CONFIRM THAT YOU ARE NOT LOCATED IN ANY COUNTRY UNDER U.S. ECONOMIC EMBARGO (AFGHANISTAN (TALIBAN-CONTROLLED AREAS), CUBA, IRAN, IRAQ, LIBYA, NORTH KOREA, SUDAN AND SYRIA)...AND NOT DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY INVOLVED IN THE DEVELOPMENT OR PRODUCTION OF NUCLEAR, CHEMICAL, OR BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS OR MISSILE TECHNOLOGY PROGRAMS.
I gotta tailor this into my BSD license somehow. Something like, THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ESPECIALLY TO FORMER MEMBERS OF SUDANESE DICTATORSHIPS, WHATTA BUNCH OF BASTARDS, YOU STAY AWAY FROM MOUSEHOLE YOU FREAK, I WORKED TOO HARD TO HAVE A GUY LIKE YOU USE ITS SHARP EDGES TO SLICE OFF THE TOES OF WHIPPED CHILDREN, GOODBYE. (Seen on one good tumblelog.)
Jeevan
Makes sense they’d include that—terrorists making nuclear weapons always read and obey software licenses.
MenTaLguY
Silly as it is, it’s an artifact of US law.
It’s certainly illegal to provide software to such folks, so the idea is that when the feds discover a suitcause nuke running a Sybase database, the Sybase folks can point to that clause and, y’know, not go to federal prison.
Thankfully, Free Software is a bit different in that there’s no single authorized source to blame for erroneously doling out the software to fiends and nasty people.
For example, just because the bomb that cratered Boise (Idaho) was running MySQL doesn’t automatically mean that MySQL AB personally gave the terroistas a copy.
Well, we hope, anyway.
mr tinkles
i bet those terrorists are terrified about being extradited to the U.S for ‘sofware license violation.’ Thank goodness Sybase is standing up to their kind.
MenTaLguY
Everybody does their part, mister tinkles.
mr tinkles
by the way, why. any news on what has significantly changed in 1.8.3 or on the conspicuous absence of the one click installer for this release????
if anyone can find out i feel assured you can (well connected as you are).
timsuth
Silly as it is, it’s an artifact of US law.
It also prevents the U.S. government from using Sybase to develop missiles, or nuclear/chemical/biological weapons.
I presume that part isn’t due to any U.S. law!
mr tinkles
possibly not timsuth. from the extract it seems to reads that certain countries/regions are prohibited from downloading period. other countries may download provided they are not developing unsavoury weapons. i imagine the U.S is excluded from the list. carry on as you were Uncle Sam
MenTaLguY
Government users would likely be using other routes for procurement anyway.
batkins
Bomb that created Boise? Whuh?
Peter Cooper
Aren’t all US citizens indirectly helping the development of nuclear and biological weapons by paying taxes to the US government?
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