On 29 October 2014 10:29, Kevin Brubeck Unhammer <[email protected]> wrote:
> Mikel Artetxe <[email protected]> writes:
>> Sure. In fact, that's exactly what I was proposing from the beginning.
>> Jim's point was that we would be forced to publish our private key
>> because of GPL, but it looks like that wouldn't be necessary after
>> all.
>
> apt-get is GPL, and it uses a set of public keys to check the downloaded
> software. It lets you change its keyring of course, but a user could do
> that with Mitzuli as well by downloading the source and swapping out the
> public key for their own and signing their own language pairs etc.
>

apt is quite different; firstly, it's demonstrably not intended
primarily for use on "User Devices"; but it also allows you to rebuild
the package from (possibly modified) source, as well as install your
own keys, or install unsigned packages -- the latter two were both
possibilities Mikel mentioned for Mitzuli.

> I don't know the details of how the GPL works on this, but I thought the
> issue arose when you packaged some *private* key, and had to decrypt
> something[1]. In Mitzuli's case, however, only public keys are packaged,
> and public signatures are downloaded. No private key is required in the
> software for any functionality.
>
>
> [1] The obvious unfree example would be if we wanted people not to make
>     copies of the language pair (say they were paid for), and so we
>     encrypted the language pairs and shipped a private key in the app.
>     That, I'm fairly sure is GPL-infringing.

I couldn't honestly say if that's covered or not; if you sold someone
a binary and gave them the private key (= used for signing) instead of
the public key (= used for validating), then they wouldn't be able to
run it; if this was done deliberately, it would most likely come under
fraud or consumer protection laws (i.e., knowingly selling something
not fit for purpose), rather than copyright.

-- 
<Sefam> Are any of the mentors around?
<jimregan> yes, they're the ones trolling you

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Apertium-stuff mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/apertium-stuff

Reply via email to