Hi Everyone!

I'm sorry to barge in, especially with a message not quoted correctly, but I 
weight the thoughts a lot more than the format.

Warrant Canaries might not be a very wise choice, at least not in its most 
simple form.

However, resent events in the world has shown everyone that having I project 
without a backdoor or (suspected) weak encryption, is a very strong positive, 
and my personal opinion is that the future will make it even more important.

It could be a smart decision to build this "feature" into the product.


-          As the code is all open, you could make code review/code assessments 
by "external" people a part of the project, and simply see this as a feature 
itself.


-          ESF could bind themselves by ethical rules that forbids them to 
continue product support on "non secure" releases.


How would anyone be able to prove what the code reviewers were "hinted" to 
review and by who.

How would any agency be able to force ESF to break ethical rules, and order 
them to continue working on something that they have promised to stop working 
on when it no longer gives any meaning.

However there is also a problem here, what if the governments/agencies wins 
this war, and laws are passed that "require" products to be "open" for the 
governments, there is a possibility for this scenario too, even if we don't 
like the sound if it, having a project that can't comply with current laws will 
definitely kill it.


My English is bad, and this is just my thoughts, but they all have to do with 
the project, and what "features" we will/might find important in the future, so 
please be constructive.


-          Ulrik Lunddahl


Fra: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] På 
vegne af Yehuda Katz
Sendt: 11. oktober 2013 20:22
Til: pfSense support and discussion
Emne: Re: [pfSense] naive suggestion: conform to US laws

On Fri, Oct 11, 2013 at 1:41 PM, Thinker Rix 
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Probably would not work (or would get whoever did that thrown in jail). This is 
similar to a Warrant Canary, but the USDoJ has indicated that Warrant Canaries 
would probably be grounds for prosecution of violation of the non-disclosure 
order.
inspired by the keyword you dropped, I researched a little bit and found: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warrant_canary
It seems that you are correct: What Adrian suggests, is called a Warrant canary.
In the wikipedia article it says that: "The intention is to allow the provider 
to inform customers of the existence of a subpoena passively, without violating 
any laws. The legality of this method has not been tested in any court." Is 
that wrong or in conflict with what you wrote?

I do not know of any prosecution for using a Warrant Canary, but that does not 
change whether the government would intend to prosecute it (and I have 
discussed it with lawyers in the DoJ and other areas). It just means that the 
situation has not come up: either because no place that uses a Warrant Canary 
has received a "secret order" or because no place that has received one has 
been willing to really use it as designed. This is what it boils down to: Do 
you want to go in front of a federal judge and say "I did not say we received a 
subpoena, I just stopped saying we did not receive one."? I know I would not 
want to.

If anyone wants to talk more about Warrant Canaries, email me off the list.

- Y

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