I work for Sandia Labs as well, and although I don’t actually know the folks involved here, I do know the relevant Sandia corporate perspective.
I can tell you that the language about the irrevocable license and about export control is standard Sandia boilerplate, applied to all products early in their lifecycle. The actually relevant bit with respect to export control is at the bottom of the file https://github.com/algorithmfoundry/Foundry/blob/master/CopyrightHistory.txt,
where it gives the copyright grant notices. Versions 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 have all been reviewed by Sandia’s export control office and found to have “no specific export issues,” otherwise known as status EAR99. Most commodities are in this export control category:
Microsoft Word, bananas, thumbtacks, Linux. But if you as a US citizen ship bananas or Linux CDs to an embargoed or sanctioned country, and the US government wishes you hadn’t, well, then suddenly you’re in trouble, and should have asked for permission first.
The bottom line is that by including this language, Sandia is stating that it is not indemnifying you against complying with U.S. Export laws. Although the software is believed to be free of export control restrictions, if the government comes after you,
Sandia is not going to defend you. Sandia will say this with respect to any product it produces, and the truth is, pretty much every U.S. company says (or should say) the same thing. Ask any international business lawyer: they are likely to agree.
Now, all that said: I’m neither advocating or discouraging your use of this library, but I’d make that judgement based on it own merits.
Obligatory Disclaimer: That is my personal opinion and not necessarily the opinion of ORNL or any other entity associated with the DOE.
Jay
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