[Fedora-legal-list] The Iran Question

[David Nalley]

Ohh legal-type ones:

We have a contributor from Iran (and I imagine that you are already
engaged on the trademark issue for a proposed website).
This gentleman has recently been sponsored as an Ambassador and
recently asked the question about what he can do within Iran.

https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-ambassadors-list/2009-February/msg00262.html

I responded and told him that I had been pondering this question but
had no answers and would appeal to those who are more qualified to
answer.

It is obvious to me that we can not directly provide him support
however I think his questions are valid, and there have been recent
conversations about other countries in similar situations such as
Cuba.

The first question in my mind is: what type of liability exists for us
to have 'members' of Fedora in such countries. The example I am
thinking of is if he as an individual downloads Fedora isos and
distributes them at an event in Iran, is there risk to us because he
is a member of the Fedora Project.

Perhaps a better question is: What is he forbidden from doing. Given
the recent list traffic regarding Cuba and now Iran, perhaps codifying
such restrictions would be beneficial. If such a page already exists,
please feel free to ignore my question and just point me there, but my
friend Google yielded little other than this blog post from Greg a
year ago:
http://gregdek.livejournal.com/23007.html

Another question - supposing some level of involvement is acceptable,
and that Fedora EMEA e.V. is not subject to such restrictions (it's my
belief that EU countries have no such law regarding Iran, but whether
that's a belief grounded in reality might be a different matter) could
Fedora EMEA support activities in $forbidden_places? I know RH Legal
is trying to wrap it's head around the entire non-profit organization
stuff at the moment, so perhaps we can also get this answered in the
process.


Thanks

David Nalley