SCC

Mark.Westermanat_private

From PRNewswire:
" SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 13 /PRNewswire/ --Secure Computing Corporation 
(Nasdaq: SCUR), today announced that it has been awarded a sole source 
contract by the National Security Agency (NSA) to develop a Secure Linux 
Operating System (OS). This contract calls for Secure Computing to apply 
its patented Type Enforcement(TM) technology, to develop a robust 
and secure Linux platform. This award furthers the goal of Secure to 
pursue and acquire contracts that will provide enabling technologies to 
both the Federal government infrastructure as well as commercial electronic 
business applications. "

From the GPL:

"Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We 
wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will 
individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program
proprietary. 
To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for 
everyone's free use or not licensed at all. 

5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not signed
it. 
However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the
Program or 
its derivative works. These actions are prohibited by law if you do not
accept 
this License. Therefore, by modifying or distributing the Program (or any
work 
based on the Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do
so, 
and all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying the 
Program or works based on it. 

6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
Program), 
the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to
copy, 
distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and conditions. You
may 
not impose any further restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the
rights 
granted herein. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third 
parties to this License. "

SCC by accepting the Sole Source Contract from the NSA and performing 
the work by modifying Linux you accepted the terms of the GPL. Since 
Linux uses the GPL, SCC was required by LAW to accept the terms of the 
GPL. They modified Linux and distributed SELinux to the NSA.

I seems quite clear that SCC CANNOT impose any further restrictions 
on SELinux. 

SELinux is GPL and SCC has no legal grounds to apply their 
"Statement of Assurance".

To Secure Computing stop creating FUD, and own up to the fact that 
SELinux is GPL and you may not impose any further restrictions on 
the recipients' of SELinux.

Mark Westerman

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