Unblock matplotlib sourceforge?

Eric Firing <efiring@...552...> writes:

This project does NOT incorporate, access, call upon, or otherwise use
encryption of any kind, including, but not limited to, open source
algorithms and/or calls to encryption in the operating system or
underlying platform.

I don't know whether lib/matplotlib/type1font.py meets this test. It
is needed by the usetex support for at least the pdf backend.

Owing to a former business model of Adobe, Type-1 fonts are
encrypted. The algorithm and encryption key are now widely known (and
Adobe distributes a technical note disclosing them), but it is still
an encryption algorithm.

The current version of type1font.py does not decrypt fonts, but it
accesses the encrypted part of a font and can be used to copy it in
the output postscript or pdf file. That could fall under "otherwise
use" as far as I understand (English is not my first language, and
legalese far less).

I have had some plans of adding Type-1 font subsetting support, which
I believe requires including the encryption algorithm.

Jouni

I think mpl complies with this spirit of this clause: no nation on the
restricted list could reasonably use mpl in an encryption/decryption
effort. As for Jouni's explicit question: potentially copying some
encrypted font data but not encrypting or decrypting it, I think that
does not qualify as "otherwise use encryption of any kind" though I
suppose this is open to interpretation. If we ever receive a
reasonable request from the justice department asking us to
cease-and-desist, we would certainly comply with that.

So I suggest leaving the export controls turned off, as Eric has done.
Thanks for the head's up Matthew (I thought we had already taken care
of this ...)

JDH

···

On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 12:57 PM, Jouni K. Seppänen <jks@...278...> wrote:

This project does NOT incorporate, access, call upon, or otherwise use
encryption of any kind, including, but not limited to, open source
algorithms and/or calls to encryption in the operating system or
underlying platform.