Re: Commercial Mixmaster (was Re: Mixmaster status)

[loki@obscura.com (Lance Cottrell)]

That is correct. The current code can not be recalled. That is part of why I
released it that way. So that I could not be coerced into withdrawing it.

        -Lance

At 12:48 PM 9/15/95, Futplex wrote:
>Anonymous writes:
># Consider this scenario ...  Mixmaster get's bought by the Acme
># Crypto Company of Ft. Meade, MD.  They "improve" it, and offer a new
># version.  It's even FREE (for non-commerical use)!  But their
># "improvements" make it incompatible with previous versions, and so
># you have to upgrade.  The new "commercial" version comes with no
># SOURCE CODE, of course...
>
>Lance Cottrell writes:
>> 4) There will always be a free version of the client with source code.
>>
>> While I have not discussed it, I can not imagine that there would not also
>> be a free version of the server code (with source). Without remailers what
>> is the point of the client software?
>
>Beyond taking Lance on his PGP-signed-word, which I'm strongly inclined to do,
>I suspect he may not have much legal leeway in this regard.
>
>With the caveat that I Am Not A Lawyer, it seems to me that the GNU General
>Public License (Version 1 from 1989, Mix/GNU.license in the Mixmaster .tar or
>http://hopf.math.nwu.edu/docs/Gnu_License), which covers all extant
>distributions of Mixmaster, has some significant implications for any
>commercial development of Mixmaster. It's applicable to "the Program or any
>derivative work under copyright law: that is to say, a work containing the
>Program or a portion of it, either verbatim or with modifications and/or
>translated into another language".
>
>The GNU GPL specifies that:
>
>        2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of
>        it, and copy and distribute such modifications under the terms of
>        Paragraph 1 above, provided that you also do the following:
>        [...]
>        b) cause the whole of any work that you distribute or publish, that
>        in whole or in part contains the Program or any part thereof, either
>        with or without modifications, to be licensed at no charge to all
>        third parties under the terms of this General Public License (except
>        that you may choose to grant warranty protection to some or all
>        third parties, at your option).
>
>and that:
>
>        3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a portion or
>        derivative of it, under Paragraph 2) in object code or executable
>        form under the terms of Paragraphs 1 and 2 above provided that you
>        also do one of the following:
>        a) accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
>        source code, [...] or,
>        b) accompany it with a written offer, [...] to give any third party
>        free (except for a nominal charge for the cost of distribution) a
>        complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, [...]
>
>So it looks to me as though Mixmaster source code will continue to be
>legally available, no matter what....
>
>Better informed interpretations are enthusiastically solicited.
>
>-Futplex <futplex@pseudonym.com>

----------------------------------------------------------
Lance Cottrell   loki@obscura.com
PGP 2.6 key available by finger or server.
Mixmaster, the next generation remailer, is now available!
http://obscura.com/~loki/Welcome.html or FTP to obscura.com

"Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra.  Suddenly
it flips over, pinning you underneath.  At night the ice
weasels come."
                        --Nietzsche
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