Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 13:42:23 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert Watson <rwatson@FreeBSD.ORG> To: tim@iafrica.com.na Cc: cjclark@alum.mit.edu, Kris Kennaway <kris@FreeBSD.ORG>, Susie Ward <sward@voltage.net>, freebsd-security@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: SecureBSD (Was: Re: Firewalls and the endless story!) Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.3.96L.1000706133812.52496A-100000@fledge.watson.org> In-Reply-To: <39648214.A63C423B@polytechnic.edu.na>
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On Thu, 6 Jul 2000, Tim Priebe wrote: > If they get a patent, you are in the same boat if you looked at the code > or not. As I understand to be in violation of patents, you do not even > have to know anything about the holder of a patent, their products (if > any) or that they ever had such an idea. > This is not to suggest you should look at their product. It seems to me > that many of these ideas were discused on this list. Yes -- I was unclear in my email. I attempted to address two points, and mixed them up. First, whether or not any patents were associated with the SecureBSD work, and second, whether or not looking at the SecureBSD source code would influence our ability to develop security-related code. My answer to the first was: they may or may not hold or be applying for patents, but just because they haven't announced any doesn't mean they can't. With regards to the second -- depending on the definitions applied, inspecting SecureBSD source code and subsequently developing related code on FreeBSD sounds like a potential problem -- one that I'd like to avoid :-). If someone would like to agree to the license and post a detailed description (subject to restrictions in the license, if any) of the feature set, that would no doubt be appreciated. The only documentation available to those who have not agreed to the license is the mention of a kernel-based tripwire-like mechanism, which is clearly not the total sum of features in SecureBSD. Robert N M Watson robert@fledge.watson.org http://www.watson.org/~robert/ PGP key fingerprint: AF B5 5F FF A6 4A 79 37 ED 5F 55 E9 58 04 6A B1 TIS Labs at Network Associates, Safeport Network Services To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-security" in the body of the message
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