(c) for use in connection with the design, development or production of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, or rocket systems, space launch vehicles, or sounding rockets, or unmanned air vehicle systems.
You may not download Fedora software or technical information if you are located in one of these countries or otherwise subject to these restrictions.
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers on board.
Is that saying I’m technically not permitted to use Fedora to FPV a $50 consumer drone?
Yeah that’s kind-of confusing me. It’s saying “or otherwise subject to”, so it sounds like even being in the US would still put all of C’s in-place.
It does specify: “for use in connection with the design, development or production …” - So as far as just using the drone, it probably wouldn’t apply.
The way the law works is that each entity must obey the laws of the country they reside in. Fedora must obey USA laws.
You will need to obey the laws where you live, which may have more or less restrictions.
Technically I’d be “producing” an “unmanned air vehicle system” by plugging a USB capture card in, installing VLC, and viewing the video output from a drone?
By having it all on a laptop I produced a system specifically for an unmanned air vehicle, and would be actively using it by watching the screen and pressing flight controls influenced by that view
Anyone have any more feedback? It looks pretty clear-cut I can’t theoretically run a drone FPV set-up through VLC while running Fedora, even for something relatively innocent like flying a consumer drone within a residential bedroom.
Like I imagine the more nefarious use-cases such a restriction probably covers, but Fedora seems to blanket-cover any drone/unmanned aircraft use?
Yea I’d agree. I doubt the care at all what individuals are doing with their drones. They are trying to prevent production/manufacturing of this stuff for sale to those they consider hostile.
… but Fedora seems to …
It’s probably worth pointing out that basically all US made software and hardware is subject to either this rule, or other rules like it. You’ll find this attached to pretty much all major Linux distros, and pretty much everything Microsoft and Apple do.
If you are looking for software that is not subject to this, you’re in for quite a trip.
Means all production stages, such as: product engineering, manufacture, integration, assembly (mounting), inspection, testing, quality assurance.
And “Development”:
is related to all stages prior to serial production, such as: design, design research, design analyses, design concepts, assembly and testing of prototypes, pilot production schemes, design data, process of transforming design data into a product, configuration design, integration design, layouts.
“UAVs” or unmanned “airships” , designed to have controlled flight out of the direct “natural vision” of the “operator”
Those sound like general export regulations for more serious affairs, but Fedora appears to be using US EAR andexplicit a/b/c restrictions, with C seemingly applicable to a consumer drone with the definitions and part of Fedora’s “or otherwise subject to these restrictions” clause.
I definitely remember spotting it in OpenSuse and PopOS. But given that this is a US government regulation, you should expect it to apply to all US based developers.
But I am no lawyer, so I will stop short of trying to analyze this in detail.
