NSA and GPL?

NSA and GPL?

[Tracy R Reed]

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I hope this hasn't been hashed over before but the following email came
across the local LUG mailing list and I was wondering if anyone had any
comment on it. Did the NSA really not understand the implications of the
GPL when they started the project? How is that possible?

-- 
Tracy Reed      http://www.ultraviolet.org

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From: Ray Simard <ray.simard@sylvan-glade.com>
To: kplug-list@kernel-panic.org
Subject: MicroSophistry
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003 17:48:16 -0800
Message-ID: <200301271748.16645.ray.simard@sylvan-glade.com>

From the "Ignorance is not only bliss; it's ubiquitous" Dept.

>http://www.wininformant.com/Articles/Index.cfm?Action=Comments&ArticleID=27104

"Re: Congressman attacking 'open source' Actually, rather than attacking 'open 
source' per se, the Congressman was attacking the GPL, the Gnu Public 
License. (The Congressman, being just a mouthpiece, anyway, probably did not 
fully understand what he is doing.) Microsoft takes a very dim view of the 
GPL, as you know, and would argue that it makes it difficult for commercial 
software developers to use in commercial software, things which have appeared 
in open source under the GPL. Microsoft is going to be floating legislation 
to break the GPL."

echo "..commercial software developers to use in commercial software..." | \ 
                bs2txt -MS
...us to keep for ourseves...
=== 

" 'Others in the government don't share Smith's opinion, however, with the 
Pentagon, NSA and other agencies embracing Linux and other open source 
solutions.'

"Given the fact that Dick Schafer, a deputy director of the NSA, publicly 
announced his agency's reversal on their support for the Security Enhanced 
Linux project (“We didn’t fully understand the consequences of releasing 
software under the GPL” said Mr. Schafer and noted that the GPL issue created 
so many problems for the security agency that “we won't be doing anything 
like that again.”) in August 2002, I think that "embracing" might be too 
strong a word..."

I'd like to find out more about this. Sounds like a believer in 
security-through-obscurity at NSA.

Ray S.


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Re: NSA and GPL?

[Brad Chapman]

Ms. Reed,

--- Tracy R Reed <treed@ultraviolet.org> wrote:
> I hope this hasn't been hashed over before but the following email came
> across the local LUG mailing list and I was wondering if anyone had any
> comment on it. Did the NSA really not understand the implications of the
> GPL when they started the project? How is that possible?

I have read one of the longer threads on this subject, and IIRC it was
eventually decided by the project heads that the NSA had every intention
of embracing the GPL, continuing to work on SELinux, and so on.

Russel Coker was a large participant in this thread; he could tell you more.

Brad

> 
> -- 
> Tracy Reed      http://www.ultraviolet.org
> 

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Re: NSA and GPL?

[Russell Coker]

On Tue, 28 Jan 2003 03:09, Tracy R Reed wrote:
> I hope this hasn't been hashed over before but the following email came
> across the local LUG mailing list and I was wondering if anyone had any
> comment on it. Did the NSA really not understand the implications of the
> GPL when they started the project? How is that possible?

Here is an official response to the matter from last time it was discussed, 
posted by:
Grant M. Wagner
Technical Director
Secure Systems Research Office
National Security Agency
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=selinux&m=103002955006824&w=2

If you carefully read the article linked below and then look at the time-stamp 
it becomes clear that it is exactly the same issue being discussed.
http://www.wininformant.com/Articles/Index.cfm?Action=Comments&ArticleID=27104

The wininformant posting is so grossly inaccurate that it may even deserve a 
response, however I'll refrain from doing so and I encourage other members of 
the list to do so as well.  I think that if anyone is to respond to that 
wininformant posting then it should be someone from the NSA.

Finally, I suggest not looking for Linux news on Windows sites for obvious 
reasons.

Please forward this message to the kplug list or summarise it for the list.

-- 
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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Re: NSA and GPL?

[Tracy R Reed]

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On Tue, Jan 28, 2003 at 08:31:41AM +0100, Russell Coker spake thusly:
> Here is an official response to the matter from last time it was discussed, 
> posted by:

Thanks. I have forwarded this on. Whoever was really responsible for this
FUD did a good job because I often hear from people who know nothing else
about SE Linux other than the rumors that it does not have support from
the NSA. Glad to have an authoritative source debunking it.

-- 
Tracy Reed      http://www.ultraviolet.org

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