[copyleft-next] Network access to Corresponding Source

Theodore Ts'o tytso at mit.edu
Sat Feb 9 19:14:41 UTC 2013


On Sat, Feb 09, 2013 at 01:31:45PM -0500, Stephen Michael Kellat wrote:
> 
> "Corresponding source shall be accessible via non-proprietary means of
> access without charge, need for identity verification, or user traffic
> logging."

I'm not so sure about the last clause.  What precisely qualifies as
"user traffic logging"?  Some people might think IP addresses might
qualify.

The goal here is to prevent requiring a user acount, right?  Wouldn't
"identity verification" be sufficient?

Also, while most crypto qualifies these days under the ITAR exemption,
enough so that we don't think about it, there is still software (such
as that pertaining to satellites and launch vehicles) which is still
coverred by ITAR.  What if someone, say, in the amateur radio
community, wants to use open source software in an amateur satellite
project?  I could imagine cases where the software could be freely
shared within the United States, but due to ITAR regulations, someone
who tried putting it on an open ftp site would could end up getting
thrown in jail.

There's some discussions about how the GPL interacts with ITAR here:

    http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/dod-oss-qa.html

But if we require that "corresponding source" must _always_ be
accessible via the network, this might be problemtic for certain use
cases.

Regards,

					- Ted


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