US and non-US?

[stickmansquark]

I have recently been looking at websites to download Debian 3.0r2 from, but I am having some trouble. The site I have from gives me the options of downloading Debian 3.0r2 US and Debian 3.0r2 non-US. What does US stand for, is it united states? Any help would be appreciated.

[kurt_der_koenig]

mmmm.. Maybe non-US means that it is in another country and that US means that its in the US! What is the site address so I can look at it?

[neel]

it's in the faq:
http://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#nonus

What is the difference between the normal "1" and the "1_NONUS" CDs?

There are two variants of the binary-1 CD, one with and one without software of the "non-US" category. The non-US software cannot be legally stored on servers that are located in the USA - formerly, the reason for this used to be that it contained strong cryptographic code, today it is that the programs use algorithms covered by US patents.

Everyone should fetch the non-US variant for private use; the "non-non-US" variant is useful only for US-based mirrors and vendors. The other binary CDs do not contain any "US-sensitive" software; they work perfectly well with either variant of the binary-1 CD.

A similar story holds for the source-1 and source-1_NONUS variants.

great US style laws, wich forces me to find superior software outside the US... well fine with me, then I know one or another security agency doesn't already have the master key or something