[FS-UK-announce] LWN: Kernel Changelogs to be censored? [DMCA/EUCD]

[Julian T. J. Midgley]

Alan Cox puts his foot down, and refuses to reveal details of security
related issues to US Kernel Developers, for fear of their being prosecuted
under the DMCA:

http://lwn.net/2001/1025/

Extracts:

   Kernel changelogs to be censored? Alan Cox stirred things up this
   week with his announcement of the eleventh 2.2.20 prepatch. Along
   with the usual set of fixes and updates, the changelog included the
   following:

   "o Security fixes
      Details censored in accordance with the US DMCA"

   When pressed for details, Alan responded that "file permissions and
   userids may constitute and be used for rights management" and that
   he wasn't willing to risk lawsuits and/or prison terms by releasing
   information that could be used for circumvention. When it comes to
   security problems, says Alan, "US kernel developers cannot be told.
   Period." He has not, as yet, responded to questions on how he can
   work with (US-based) Linus under such conditions.

 [snip]

   So, for example, it is considered OK to publish a patch containing:

     -#define MAX_QUOTA_MESSAGE 75
     +#define MAX_QUOTA_MESSAGE (PAGE_SIZE + 256)

   but it is a violation to put "fix potential buffer overrun in the
   quota code" into a changelog. Even though this problem was publicly
   discussed on the linux-kernel list back in September. These are,
   shall we say, strange times. In the long run, if the Powers That Be
   are determined to prevent the discussion of security
   vulnerabilities, they will seek a way to block the exchange of the
   code as well.

   Sooner or later, this situation has to resolve itself. The kinds of
   restrictions that corporations and governments wish to put into
   software (and discussions about software) are in conflict with
   free, source-available code. Historically, in the U.S., freedom has
   a reasonable chance - especially where freedom of speech is
   involved. But we live in interesting times, to say the least.

-- 
Julian T. J. Midgley                      http://www.xenoclast.org/
Cambridge, England.                          PGP Key ID: 0xBCC7863F
Beware the European Copyright Directive:  http://uk.eurorights.org/