Re: Want to help the SE Linux work?
On Mon, 30 Sep 2002 17:44, Sean 'Shaleh' Perry wrote:
> On Monday 30 September 2002 08:16, Russell Coker wrote:
> > I haven't got time to package setools, Brian seems quite busy with
> > back-porting things to woody and hunting down bugs. Is anyone else
> > interested in getting into SE development?
>
> One of the things that was stopping me from looking at the SE code was the
> concern over its freedom. Is this code truly dfsg today and will it
> continue to be in the future?
The opinion of the NSA people is that it is fully licensed under the GPL.
The opinion of SCC is that they have the right to make it non-GPL at their own
whim regardless of contracts with the NSA etc.
If SCC try and enforce their opinion then they will be in a battle with the
Department of Justice. Due to the way things work in the NSA they will be
unable to make a deal, give a payout, or do anything other than fight to the
death. Also the NSA gets to advise many organizations on whether they should
purchase products or services from companies such as SCC...
There is prior art that could probably be used to invalidate the SCC patents
if SCC try to enforce them against the NSA.
SCC can't attack us directly without also attacking the NSA.
I think that SCC is spreading FUD to try and stop SE Linux becoming popular
while not going far enough to get themselves in trouble.
I've said all this (and more) on the SE Linux mailing list and the SCC people
have chosen not to respond to my messages. The SCC people also tend to post
unsigned messages that don't identify the person or department responsible
for them. :(
--
http://www.coker.com.au/selinux/ My NSA Security Enhanced Linux packages
http://www.coker.com.au/bonnie++/ Bonnie++ hard drive benchmark
http://www.coker.com.au/postal/ Postal SMTP/POP benchmark
http://www.coker.com.au/~russell/ My home page
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