Free no more!?

[minthaka]

I've just tried Mepis 6.5 RC2 and I saw some strange things:
While at Mepis 6.0-1 Warren said thanks for everybody for help, suggestions an for all the Ubuntu and Debian team, when I started to install the new release candidate, there were some strict warning like, " Mepis is no >>freeware<< although it may contain some OpenSource parts". An at the end of the installation's process there was an explicit message, that the user must pay for his copy. On the other hand, I red some informations about SimplyMEPIS and PROMepis, and that the latter shall be payable... I also don't understand what does it mean, that it is prohibited to spread strong coding technologie or something similar into some countries like mine? Can somebody help me, I don't see clearly what is happening?

[Cabhan]

The only question that I can answer relates to the one about coding technologies into your country.

In the US, it used to be illegal (and it still may be technically illegal, though I don't believe so) to export code that contains strong (RSA-level) encryption to other countries. For this reason, many software projects used to have two versions: one for US use, and one for international use that didn't use such a strong encryption.

The rationale behind this decision was ridiculous (RSA is, after all, a published and freely available algorithm), but it did happen.

The case with Mepis may be in response to current law (if it still is illegal, which again, I don't believe is the case), or may be an artifact from those days.