open source and classified software

[Michael Sheldon]

>>The GPL requires that
you make the source code available to those to whom you distribute
this analysis software.  That may or may not be acceptable depending
upon the security clearances of those ultimately using the software. <<

This may not actually be an issue. As far as the govt. is concerned,
individual users are not "distributed to", the agency is the one to whom the
app is distributed. (It's not the end-user's computer, it's the agency's.)
Therefore, the agency would have to have access to the code. But then, since
they're the ones who modded it, that's not really a problem, is it? :)

To put it in context, I can modify Apache all I want, and not re-distribute
the changes, even though all of my web-visitors are "using" it. It's on my
systems, I did not distribute it.

Michael J. Sheldon
http://www.desertraven.com/
Make a fast friend, adopt a greyhound!


-----Original Message-----
From: plug-discuss-admin@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us
[mailto:plug-discuss-admin@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us]On Behalf Of Kevin
Buettner
Sent: Monday, November 13, 2000 12:05
To: plug-discuss@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us
Subject: Re: open source and classified software


On Nov 13,  9:13am, Lucas Vogel wrote:

> Does anyone know of any articles related to open source software and
> classified software?

I don't know of any articles, but I've also never worked on classified
software.

> Can Open Source be used to develop classified software,
> or is that an oxymoron? I'm trying to find anything that comments on the
> possibilities(or impossibilities) of the two working together.

I think it may depend upon the license and the application.

E.g, suppose you're using some GPL'd code as the starting point for
developing some classified analysis software.  The GPL requires that
you make the source code available to those to whom you distribute
this analysis software.  That may or may not be acceptable depending
upon the security clearances of those ultimately using the software.
To make this example even more extreme, consider the consequences of
deploying this software in a military aircraft.  Would you be willing
to make the source to the software available to the pilots of the
aircraft?

You may wish to seek a legal opinion on the above, however, because
it's not clear to me if the pilots would be entitled to the source
under the GPL.  Perhaps only the owners of the aircraft would be,
or somesuch...

If the above is a serious concern, but you still wish to use some
GPL'd software as a starting point, you may wish to explore some
of the standard techniques used for decoupling proprietary software
from GPL'd software.

If you use a piece of code based on a BSD style license, I would
imagine that there'd be fewer questions.

Kevin

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