Re: Mass bug filing: Cryptographic protection against modification
I wrote:
> Doesn't seem likely. What purpose would such a thing serve?
Matt writes:
> The attempted inclusion of otherwise-DFSG software into Debian main
> intended to run on hardware which will only accept a crypto-signed
> binary? Presumably because someone wants Debian to support the hardware
> in question. I will find it interesting to see whether that software is
> accepted by ftpmasters and the debian-legal mavens, as the software
> licence is Free, but the source code is of near-to-zero usefulness, so
> the question of the Freeness of the source is academic.
But why would a manufacturer ship such a thing? It doesn't protect his
secrets because he is shipping source, so what is the point?
> Call it perverse curiousity...
Well, we call them the Debian Free Software _Guidelines_. If the
crypto-keyed hardware is the only existing hardware the stuff could run on
I'd call it non-free because the supplied source is incomplete: it does
not include everything needed to generate a usable binary. In fact, one
could argue that such a thing is even less free than a plain binary since
there is no way at all to make modifications: you can't even patch the
binary.
It occurs to me that someone might ship such a thing in a vain attempt to
reconcile Free Software and some sort of DRM hardware.
--
John Hasler
john@dhh.gt.org (John Hasler)
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI
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