Re: Secure Computing statement of assurance

russellat_private

On page 2 of that pdf file:
======
No Third Party Restrictions.  This Statement of Assurance is made by Secure 
Computing alone, and DOES NOT BIND or obligate ANY OTHER PERSON or party.  
Secure Computing may license or otherwise TRANSFER any or ALL OF ITS RIGHTS 
IN THE SUBJECT PATENTS, including the Subject Patent Rights, without any 
restriction or condition.  The RECIPIENTS OF SUCH RIGHTS ARE NOT BOUND BY 
THIS STATEMENT OF ASSURANCE, and may assert any rights acquired from Secure 
Computing without any limitation or restriction.
======

I think that is a very clear statement that challenges the right of the NSA 
to distribute SE Linux under the GPL in the event of the patents being sold 
to another party.  Essentially if the patents were sold to another company 
then either the NSA would have to pay that other company, or we as users of 
SE Linux would have to arrange license agreements.

On Fri, 26 Jul 2002 22:09, SCC wrote:
> Secure Computing has reviewed the concerns expressed by the open source
> community about SELinux and certain Secure Computing patents.  We
> understand that considerable effort has been invested in SELinux, with the
> expectation that SELinux would be available for everyone's use.  On the
> other hand, it is the policy of Secure Computing to retain and enforce its
> rights in all of its patents and other intellectual property.  In this
> case, we have decided to make an exception to that policy, and to support
> the reasonable expectations of the open source community.  For this reason,
> we are extending an assurance to the open source community that Secure
> Computing will not use the patents in question to limit the availability of
> SELinux. Our assurance is subject to certain limitations that we believe
> are consistent with the spirit of open source.  We know that we have caused
> confusion addressing this issue in the past, so we want to be as clear as
> possible in resolving the issue.  We have developed a Statement of
> Assurance to provide that clarity.  The Statement of Assurance summarizes
> the scope of our assurance to the community, as well as the limits of that
> assurance. The Statement of Assurance may be found at
> http://www.securecomputing.com/pdf/Statement_of_Assurance.pdf
> <http://www.securecomputing.com/pdf/Statement_of_Assurance.pdf>   We hope
> you will agree that the Statement of Assurance is both reasonable and
> clear.
>
> We thank you for your patience while we worked to resolve this issue and
> hope you will feel that your patience has been rewarded.
>
> Regards,
>
> Secure Computing Corporation
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