Dear debian-legal members, While working on packages related to Texas Instruments (TI) graphical calculators [1] I decided to package rabbitsign [2]. This application includes TI signing keys that was requested by TI to be removed from various places (including Wikipedia [3]). Currently some of those keys are available on Wikileaks [4]. Most (if not all) keys are available from [5].
While most sites removed keys on TI requests, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) stated [6] that "TI's DMCA claim fails for another reason, as well: running software of your choice on your calculator has no "nexus" with copyright infringement". And warned Texas Instruments "not to pursue its baseless legal threats against calculator hobbyists" [7]. I'm not an US citizen, so I don't have any knowledge about US copyright law. Is distribution of cracked Texas Instruments signing keys illegal according to DMCA? If it's legal then rabbitsign can be included in Debian. If not, is it legal to remove TI's keys and include rabbitsign in Debian (it will still be usable with community-created "0005" key which anyone can use to sign their own third-party OS). Finally, is it possible that signing application is illegal at all, no matter if distributed with or without keys, because it "circumvents DRM"? [1] namely TiEmu, TiLP and their dependencies [2] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=533838 [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_signing_key_controversy [4] http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Suppressed_Texas_Instruments_cryptographic_signing_keys,_28_Aug_2009 [5] http://db48x.net/TI-keys/keys.shtml [6] http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/09/ti-leave-those-kids-alone [7] http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2009/10/13 (Please CC me. I'm not subscribed.) Best regards, -- Krzysztof Burghardt <[email protected]> http://www.burghardt.pl/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected]
