So, the federal ban on trade with Cuba is silly, right? Sure. What about Syria and North Korea? Not so sure.
Today, an anonymous Slashdotter posted about a legal caveat that would prevent sales of the OLPC computers to countries that are prohibited from trading with the United States.
“In a move going largely unnoticed by developers, the OLPC project now requires all submissions to be hosted in the RedHat Fedora project. While this may not seem like a big deal, the implications are interesting. First, contributors have to sign the Fedora Project Individual Contributor License Agreement. By being forced to submit contributions to the Fedora repository they automatically fall under the provisions of US export law. So, no OLPC for Cuba, Syria and the like. Ever.”