[Lvfs-announce] Adding countries to the export control list

Hi all,

Today one large OEM informed me that we should block firmware updates
uploaded by them from distribution to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan
and Syria due to export control restrictions.

Although there is a specific export exception for =E2=80=9Csoftware updates=
=E2=80=9D
in EAR, I do think it should be up to the legal team of the OEM to
make this decision themselves. This can currently be controlled on the
LVFS either per-vendor or even per-firmware where required.
Per-firmware is useful where a specific firmware is explicitly covered
under export control, for instance updating a model only designed for
the US military.

I=E2=80=99m asking you to ask your legal teams for export control advice if
you have not done so already. If action is required, any vendor
manager can edit the per-vendor export control list, or they can ask
me to add the correct countries for them. The country list is
specified according to ISO3166, which would be =E2=80=9CCU,IR,KP,SD,SY=E2=
=80=9D for
the above example. If anyone has any questions please email me off
list.

Thanks,

Richard.