[copyleft-next] Network access to Corresponding Source

Stephen Michael Kellat skellat at fastmail.net
Sat Feb 9 19:56:34 UTC 2013


On 02/09/2013 02:14 PM, Theodore Ts'o wrote:
> 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.

I agree.  That's a bit of inartful drafting on my part.

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

Not sure.  If I understand Joshua's concerns, he does not want user
accounts involved.  I need to think about my thinking on that more in
the meantime.

> 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.

As a duly-licensed amateur radio operator, I am well aware that ITAR
remains an interesting conundrum.  For the most part, I'm not aware of
matters of concern under ITAR being released under open source licenses
of any sort.  I know at least one satellite going up that has an Arduino
on-board which would have an open source license involved but it seemed
like that was set to be connected only to sensors.  See:
http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=7983

I may need to think of an appropriate inquiry to AMSAT's office in Maryland.


>
> 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.

That's going to be an interesting scenario that I do not think we've
approached yet.  If anything, ITAR is deserving of its own thread.

Here's my second attempt at a draft:

"Corresponding source shall be accessible without charge or user
verification being required.  Access through only a
marketplace/storefront to source may not be mandated."

That's 24 words.

Stephen Michael Kellat




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