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* RE: Sorry, read this one: Re: SELinux Dumb Questions
@ 2002-06-04 22:28 McFadden, Ken
  2002-06-05  1:34 ` Admissions Office
                   ` (2 more replies)
  0 siblings, 3 replies; 13+ messages in thread
From: McFadden, Ken @ 2002-06-04 22:28 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: 'Russell Coker', JW, SE Linux
  Cc: Haigh, Tom, 'Admissions Office', Carsten Grohmann

Once again, We are doing this for NSA and GNU NOT SECURE COMPUTING!!!!!!!
If Tom has a problem then they need to address it with the NSA and the 
NSA can go forth and remove their crap or deem it as being GNU.....As I
see it SELinux will go on and if someone would like to use it then all
they would need to do is keep the original GNU licensing with it.....
Other words this is not our problem to work out but Tom's and NSA's........
Until then I would treat it as GNU per NSA's web page!!!!!!!




-----Original Message-----
From: Russell Coker [mailto:russell@coker.com.au]
Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2002 4:12 PM
To: JW; SE Linux
Cc: Haigh, Tom; 'Admissions Office'; Carsten Grohmann
Subject: Re: Sorry, read this one: Re: SELinux Dumb Questions


On Tue, 4 Jun 2002 23:49, JW wrote:
> Sorry about that last empty message, I accidently hit ^[ENTER] when I
meant
> hit shift...

You had written enough to clarify the issue (I don't know how I missed Tom's

message the first time).

> IANAL, but it is my understanding that you cannot restrict the use or
> distribution of GPLd Free Software. It simply does not work that way, no
> exceptions, no excuses. Once code is GPLd it is free for all to use. You
> can change the license on future versions of the code, but you cannot go
> back and restrict GPL's code "after the fact"

Yes.  Unless of course they claim that they didn't GPL it, or that the GPL 
only covers the code not the patent.

> 2. It will need to be removed from Debian's tree -- at least moved to
> non-free, yet as I said before, if Secure Computing is correct, SE-Linux
is
> not legal to use with GPL'd software anyway (at least the way I see it).

Stuff that.  I'm not putting this much work into non-free stuff!  If the 
license gets changed to anything other than the GPL then I'll immediately 
cease work and file critical bug reports against ftp.debian.org asking for 
the packages to be removed.  If Secure Computing want me to work on material

that's patented by them then they'll have to pay me at my usual consulting 
rates, plus back-pay for the last 6 months.

> You'd better bet that GNU and other people who's code is being modified to
> work with SE-Linux will have ten purple cows on anyone who mixes non-free
> code with their GPLd code.

The code can be still released as patches, but the problems of having them 
becoming obsolete and not matching the version your OS uses will remain.

Basically I think that SE Linux is as good as dead for anything other than 
research use if this patent gets enforced.

-- 
I do not get viruses because I do not use MS software.
If you use Outlook then please do not put my email address in your
address-book so that WHEN you get a virus it won't use my address in the
>From field.

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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 13+ messages in thread
* RE: SELinux Dumb Questions
@ 2002-06-04 23:37 Roland.Jones
  2002-06-05  5:34 ` Outside Observer Comments Paul Wolfson
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 13+ messages in thread
From: Roland.Jones @ 2002-06-04 23:37 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: russell, jw, selinux
  Cc: tom_haigh, admissions, carsten.grohmann, linux-security-module

Russell,

Your comments and clarifications are most enlightening and reflect my under standing of SELinux's use as open source code. I find this issue of private licensing confusing since I thought the whole idea was to get this technology into the community. The NSA's SELinux overview says the following at the end of the page:

		Security-enhanced Linux is being released under the same terms and conditions as the original 			sources. The release includes documentation and source code for both the system and some 			system utilities that were modified to make use of the new features. Participation with comments, 			constructive criticism, and/or improvements is welcome. 

It doesn't seem to me that NSA's intention was to restrict the deployment of this technology when they released SELinux. Any NSA types out there?


Roland


-----Original Message-----
From: ext Russell Coker [mailto:russell@coker.com.au]
Sent: Tuesday, June 04, 2002 3:00 PM
To: jw@centraltexasit.com; selinux@tycho.nsa.gov
Cc: Haigh, Tom; 'Admissions Office'; Carsten Grohmann;
linux-security-module@wirex.com
Subject: Re: SELinux Dumb Questions


On Tue, 4 Jun 2002 23:30, JW wrote:
> > On Mon, 3 Jun 2002 16:50, Admissions Office wrote:
> > > Folks this may seem like a dumb question given the Open Source and
> > > postings on the site. Its just that we want to be sure....
> > >
> > > Is there any reason why a Colo company cannot offer SELinux as a
> > > standard product offering they would install on clients servers?
> >
> > As Mark stated there are no license or legal issues preventing such use.
>
> On Monday 03 June 2002 04:13 pm, Haigh, Tom wrote:
> > SELinux includes Type Enforcement technology developed and patented by
> > the Secure Computing Corporation, who still holds rights to all
> > commercial use of the technology.  Before a colo company, or anyone else
> > uses the technology commercially, it will be necessary to negotiate a
> > license with Secure Computing.  If anyone wants to do so, I can help get
> > the ball rolling with our Legal and BD folks.

Let's look at the following URL:
http://www.securecomputing.com/archive/press/2000/nsa_faq_secure_linux.html

> Question 6: Will SCC use its patent on Type Enforcement TM to restrict use,
> future development, derivative work, or release of the source code of the
> system? 
>
> There will be no restrictions on the use of TE by the Linux open source
> community. We believe that leveraging the resources of the Linux community
> is the best way to develop robust security for Linux.

That seems like a clear statement that we can do what we like with it!

But Tom, if your company does want to go ahead with this patent plan then 
please do the following:

1)  Change that misleading web page.

2)  Let me know so I can remove all SE Linux code from Debian, remove it from 
my client's machines, and start work on a competing product.

3)  Make formal statements as to limitations of distribution etc, also 
clarify to what extent you want SE Linux code removed from the world.  Should 
I get the upstream maintainer of stat to remove the SE Linux code too?  Also 
you'll have to get it removed from LSM which is under the GPL, and you had 
better hope that the problems with building as a module are fixed quickly - 
you can't ship code that links with the kernel unless it's under the GPL.

PS  When does the patent expire?  If it's due to expire in 1 year or less we 
can just wait until it's gone...

-- 
I do not get viruses because I do not use MS software.
If you use Outlook then please do not put my email address in your
address-book so that WHEN you get a virus it won't use my address in the
>From field.

--
You have received this message because you are subscribed to the selinux list.
If you no longer wish to subscribe, send mail to majordomo@tycho.nsa.gov with
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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 13+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2002-06-07  6:52 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 13+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2002-06-04 22:28 Sorry, read this one: Re: SELinux Dumb Questions McFadden, Ken
2002-06-05  1:34 ` Admissions Office
2002-06-05  3:07   ` Russell Coker
2002-06-05  3:43     ` Admissions Office
2002-06-05  2:43 ` Outside observer comments Paul Wolfson
2002-06-05  3:14   ` Russell Coker
2002-06-05  4:07   ` JW
2002-06-05  4:28     ` Russell Coker
2002-06-05  7:29   ` Tom
2003-07-04 16:51   ` SE Linux & Education Ryan Emge
2002-06-07  6:28     ` Russell Coker
2002-06-05  7:26 ` Sorry, read this one: Re: SELinux Dumb Questions Tom
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2002-06-04 23:37 Roland.Jones
2002-06-05  5:34 ` Outside Observer Comments Paul Wolfson

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