Re: TE/DTE Patent issues?

From: Russell Coker (russellat_private)
Date: Thu Jul 04 2002 - 21:54:55 PDT

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    On Mon, 1 Jul 2002 18:34, Clint Byrum wrote:
    > On Mon, 2002-07-01 at 13:26, Westerman, Mark wrote:
    > > I am going with the NSA web pages about the patent
    > > issue. They released all the code for SELinux
    > > under the GPL some of the modified maybe release
    > > under different license.
    >
    > GPL or no, the patent will, unfortunately, overrule anything the GPL
    > says.. at least that has been what has happened to this point.
    
    To clarify my message of Fri, 21 Jun 2002 13:11:26 +0200 with the strange 
    subject of "Re: uclibc and selinux":
    
    The NSA states on their web page that SE Linux can be used under the terms of 
    the GPL.  So I recommend using it under the full terms of the GPL (which 
    requires no licenses or communication with SCC).  The only term of the GPL 
    that requires you to do anything is that if you ship a binary based on a 
    modified version of the source code then you must provide that source to 
    everyone who gets the binary.
    
    If SCC believe that the NSA has acted improperly when they declared that they 
    are releasing the code under the GPL then it is up to them to take legal 
    action against the NSA (who I believe would be represented by the Justice 
    Department in such a matter).
    
    If SCC win a legal battle against the Justice Department then they could 
    potentially start enforcing patent terms on SE Linux users.  I don't fancy 
    their chances...
    
    Please note that the above is a clarification of the message I wrote while at 
    home in Amsterdam.
    
    > > How ever Type Enforcement is a Trademark. I would not
    > > use the phrase "Type Enforcement" with out a TM
    > > reference
    >
    > A small mark against using the system.
    
    Type Enforcement(TM) is not what you want to talk about when promoting SE 
    Linux or products which use it - your customers will never understand that.  
    Just talk about "Mandatory Access Control" which prevents users from 
    accidentally granting access to their data in excess of what the security 
    policy allows (MAC has no trademark AFAIK).  Also talk about fine-grained 
    security which allows you to specify access to resources on a per-process 
    basis and which removes the issue of "you must be root to do anything 
    interesting but as root you can destroy everything".
    
    > I think I have decided that, while SELinux and Type Enforcement(tm...
    > hehe) are the right way to do this, I'd rather not deal with the
    > licensing issues. What is the best alternative? My inclination is to use
    > GRSecurity to accomplish some of the fine grained access control
    > necessary for a highly secure system, but I'm guessing you folks have
    > other suggestions.
    
    GR Security doesn't come close to doing what SE Linux does, but it does some 
    things that SE doesn't do.  GR beats OpenWall, I'm not sure how it compares 
    to LIDS, Immunix, and other products.
    
    -- 
    I do not get viruses because I do not use MS software.
    If you use Outlook then please do not put my email address in your
    address-book so that WHEN you get a virus it won't use my address in the
    From field.
    
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