Re: [ilugd] [LUG@IITD:12456] What competition can do !!!
On Sat, Mar 5, 2011 at 8:53 PM, satyaakam goswami satyaa...@gmail.com wrote: The following has been an interesting read http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Controversy-surrounds-Red-Hat-s-obfuscated-source-code-release-1200554.html See http://lwn.net/Articles/430098/ It is a GPL violation. Best A. Mani -- A. Mani ASL, CLC, AMS, CMS http://www.logicamani.co.cc ___ Ilugd mailing list Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
Re: [ilugd] [LUG@IITD:12456] What competition can do !!!
On Sunday 06 Mar 2011, A. Mani wrote: On Sat, Mar 5, 2011 at 8:53 PM, satyaakam goswami satyaa...@gmail.com wrote: The following has been an interesting read http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Controversy-surrounds-Red-Ha t-s-obfuscated-source-code-release-1200554.html See http://lwn.net/Articles/430098/ It is a GPL violation. Maybe I'm short-sighted, but I don't really see how it is a GPL violation. The GPL doesn't state anything about providing explicit patches vs one monolithic source. As long as the RH modifications are appropriately commented and documented, it's very much within the letter of the GPL. Sure, it may violate the spirit to some extent, and it's not a move I'd have wanted to see if anyone had asked my opinion, but I doubt if there is any legal obstacle to RH doing things this way. Regards, -- Raju -- Raj Mathurr...@kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F PsyTrance Chill: http://schizoid.in/ || It is the mind that moves ___ Ilugd mailing list Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
Re: [ilugd] [LUG@IITD:12456] What competition can do !!!
have a read of this: http://press.redhat.com/2011/03/04/commitment-to-open/ disclaimer: I work for Red Hat -- Harish Pillay h.pil...@ieee.org gpg id: 746809E3 ___ Ilugd mailing list Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
Re: [ilugd] [LUG@IITD:12456] What competition can do !!!
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA512 Harish Pillay writes: have a read of this: http://press.redhat.com/2011/03/04/commitment-to-open/ Thanks for the link. So now that makes it official :). I'd a similar experience Some years ago when I use to work on Gentoo Hardened, hoping to port (or better package) couple of SELinux goodies shipped with Fedora (e.g. setroubleshoot) to Gentoo environment, I was never able to get source tarballs of the latest RPMs. The tarball versions which were available on the project site (somewhere on fedorahosted.org) were quite old compared to what Fedora was shipping. And the only way to get them was to extract them - From their SRPMs and host them somewhere. This is just the beginning. To make third-parties to support RHEL harder, I'm sure there is more obscurity coming up. Thanks - -- Ashish SHUKLA “I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.” (Robert A. Heinlein, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, 1966) -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v2.0.16 (FreeBSD) iQIcBAEBCgAGBQJNcxZiAAoJEMdGz6nnT6Swn+gP/i0LATbcZ0OZtwRMb4D1Z3SU B+JHTBi/B0ny5CH6Dn1jf0aP1/4RbZP30FCk4iI3aedmQ47FBYftIlT2qv9N2FRx jmSwmvHGEVQWM6Yz1gVT4reockEkkMCcMrxQ46SWtICbwyLMQX7398Q5xNOLPmlo jprd2hTg/kdHw0nA/+Khi9KDbChIhkpnG8WZYdx+W1OHs8zCXtlonZFlauubejIb e6LdDDP/JMQtLlhMFmUZXMvcKvLFkOW/rIfdWwYiFO5ROwxNa36vuWZsPiG6wj0h BhT8U3+onoCLPSQdHqmfKPZ/KGDEGADpnTQ7Dwj5UXK1nfJvX/bWnR6BPHw2w7OR QS1x4LyC59FoIDoRwBGyN8p6bhPSmdfwQPO1+jUwGBDtPdSCO01vOhfbiwZXGRLo AXhO2sUMxyzA5X05YYQhDqgE/gjQTM8qdNzDN0Oq68N/U9EM9IuxJMC/GPRBWMa6 Zi6iGsdKh/LQfwzmwrq5mg6sx6jBlue2wkYA1ffisBTWxu8oWvoz3smkIPftD4CR zoblt1qkdCpQBXBGp7rnO3of1Xdy1OP/J1f4bi7l57mHWsdheR+zxxHayhiEBiJ6 UIZPLbB8vXx7mmkoBmp8xahWYTD1vMiOyTh/ARaNXXd1/ZmjE39HpN6p1+RHdwC9 z32LegF1AUdRolQKT73g =DAXU -END PGP SIGNATURE- ___ Ilugd mailing list Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
Re: [ilugd] [LUG@IITD:12456] What competition can do !!!
Grrr... the original messages were not to the ilugd mailing list, were they? It is frustrating to reply without getting the context. Raju Mathur said on Sun, Mar 06, 2011 at 08:19:41AM +0530,: On Sunday 06 Mar 2011, A. Mani wrote: On Sat, Mar 5, 2011 at 8:53 PM, satyaakam goswami satyaa...@gmail.com wrote: The following has been an interesting read http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Controversy-surrounds-Red-Ha t-s-obfuscated-source-code-release-1200554.html See http://lwn.net/Articles/430098/ It is a GPL violation. Maybe I'm short-sighted, but I don't really see how it is a GPL violation. The GPL doesn't state anything about providing explicit patches vs one monolithic source. As long as the RH modifications are appropriately commented and documented, it's very much within the letter of the GPL. Sure, it may violate the spirit to some extent, and it's not a move I'd have wanted to see if anyone had asked my opinion, but I doubt if there is any legal obstacle to RH doing things this way. And how does this violate teh spirit of the GPL? The mainline kernel itself accepts binary only blobs / module / code / your fav name for it. And it worse that these blobs are under no-modification licences. You do not require a non-s/w guy like me to remind you that if source code is available, it is trivial, and in any sense of the term, much possible to de-obfuscate it. And by way of a gentle reminder, and more important, you (Raju) was, IIRC are one of the first customers in India of a mobile phone running the linux kernel. You would have looked up what it takes to get source code to that manufacturer's version of the kernel as running on that phone. -- Mahesh T. Pai || From The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906) [devil]: LAWYER, n. One skilled in circumvention of the law. ___ Ilugd mailing list Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
Re: [ilugd] [LUG@IITD:12456] What competition can do !!!
On Sunday 06 Mar 2011, Mahesh T. Pai wrote: Raju Mathur said on Sun, Mar 06, 2011 at 08:19:41AM +0530,: On Sunday 06 Mar 2011, A. Mani wrote: See http://lwn.net/Articles/430098/ It is a GPL violation. Maybe I'm short-sighted, but I don't really see how it is a GPL violation. The GPL doesn't state anything about providing explicit patches vs one monolithic source. As long as the RH modifications are appropriately commented and documented, it's very much within the letter of the GPL. Sure, it may violate the spirit to some extent, and it's not a move I'd have wanted to see if anyone had asked my opinion, but I doubt if there is any legal obstacle to RH doing things this way. And how does this violate teh spirit of the GPL? The mainline kernel itself accepts binary only blobs / module / code / your fav name for it. And it worse that these blobs are under no-modification licences. You do not require a non-s/w guy like me to remind you that if source code is available, it is trivial, and in any sense of the term, much possible to de-obfuscate it. Let's leave other issues with the kernel aside for a moment -- because the kernel accepts non-free blobs doesn't make any other violation of the spirit of the GPL acceptable. And Redhat's tactic does violate the spirit of the GPL by making it that much harder for users of RH kernels to, for instance, apply selective patches. I'm not claiming that it's not possible to de-obfuscate what RH has done; on the other hand, deliberately packaging your kernel source in a way that makes it more difficult to modify, customise and extend is, IMO, a definite violation of the spirit of the GPL. The only reason I could find for RH doing this was to make the entry bar stiffer for competition -- there are zero technical merits for doing things this way. I'm sorry, but going out of your way to make your code less easy to digest for your competition is a strategy practised by purveyors of proprietary software. Finally, I have nothing but respect for RH, specially in the context of India where they have helped achieve so many significant milestones. On the other hand, I wouldn't practise closed-minded jingoism supporting their case regardless of the merits and demerits of any individual action either. Regards, -- Raju -- Raj Mathurr...@kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F PsyTrance Chill: http://schizoid.in/ || It is the mind that moves ___ Ilugd mailing list Ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd
