Messages in this thread | | | Date | Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:02:43 -0700 (PDT) | From | david@lang ... | Subject | Re: Dual-Licensing Linux Kernel with GPL V2 and GPL V3 |
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On Fri, 15 Jun 2007, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> > Now, by your own logic, let's look at what that means for the license. > Should we write into our copyright license that you cannot try to find > security holes? Would that be a good addition to the GPLv2? > > Now, I stated that in a way where the answer is obvious: that would be a > *horrible* addition to the GPLv2. I think everybody can agree on that. It > would be really stupid to say "you cannot look for security holes" just > because *some* people who do it are bad. > > Now, think about that for a moment, and then go back to your question > about whether Tivo is bad for the community, and whether being bad for the > community should mean that the license should be written to say "go away > and don't use future improvements to our software". > > See where I'm trying to take you? > > I think that even people who *do* think that what Tivo did was "bad", > should think very deeply about the issue whether you should try to lock > out "bad uses" in your license. Yes, the answer may be "yes, you should". > But I'm arguing that the answer _may_ also be: "No, you shouldn't, becasue > it turns out that you might lock out _good_ people too". > > So in my cracker/spammer example, by trying to lock out the bad people, > the obvious (and _stupid_ - don't get me wrong, I'm not at *all* > suggesting anything like that should ever be done) license addition of > "don't expose security problems" actually just causes more problems than > it solves (if it solves anything at all - really bad people don't actually > tend to even care about the license!). > > It makes it harder for *valid* uses of security problem discovery. It > makes it potentially illegal to try to do security research. And don't > tell me stupid licenses and laws like that don't happen: people really > *do* make these kinds of shortsighted decisions, to "protect" themselves > from bad people.
in fact there was news in the last week or two about a law in Germany that does exactly this. it outlaws all programs that can be used for hacking systems.
David Lang
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