On Thu, 15 Aug 2002 19:16, John Hasler wrote: > Russell Coker writes: > > As the US government is prohibited from owning copyright they definately > > can't get a copyright in their own jurisdiction,... > > The US government definitely is allowed to own copyrights. The restriction > is on _enforcing_ their copyrights on works of which they are author.
I have been told otherwise, but as I am not a lawyer I have to admit the possibility that I misunderstood what I was told. Are you a lawyer? If not then I'll disregard your statements on this matter because the information I received came from someone who should know. > > The NSA paid a sum of money (rumored to be $2M) to SCC to write a Linux > > kernel patch to be distributed under the GPL which implements their > > patents. > > Then most likely either SCC owns the copyright or they assigned it to NSA. I am under the impression that perhaps the issue of copyright ownership was not made clear, however the issue of GPL release was. > > The issue is that SCC was paid to write code for GPL release. Claiming > > otherwise would probably be a breach of their contract with the NSA... > > Which only NSA can enforce. My first guess is that if SCC were to start > enforcing its patents against you then Linus et al could sue NSA to stop > distributing the patched kernel and NSA in turn could sue SCC for specific > performance. If SCC sued anybody then it would kill SE Linux, and thus waste a significant amount of NSA resources (I'd have to guess at least $10M has been spent on this). The best way for SCC to bring trouble upon themselves would be to sue me. I believe am doing more for the widespread acceptance of SE Linux than anyone outside the NSA. Also if SCC wants to sue me then they have to do it in Amsterdam, bwahahahaha... > Perhaps it would be possible to use the FOIA to get the terms of the > contract? It may be possible for someone who is a US citizen. If someone gets a copy of such a contract then I wouldn't mind if it got email'd to me... NB I am specifically not requesting that someone obtain a copy of the contract for the purpose of giving it to me. However if it's available I wouldn't mind a copy. > Maybe NSA's lawyers already thought of all this. I think it is > perfectly legal and safe to distribute and use the patches now, but it > seems possible that SCC could start enforcing its patents at any time, > thereby stopping distribution. True. However there is another issue. It is widely believed that the Chinese are doing some serious SE Linux work. It would be a bit of an annoyance for the US government if US interests can't be protected by the NSA's software while Chinese interests can be. With the current political climate in the US you wouldn't want to be the party responsible for giving the Chinese better info-sec than the US... -- I do not get viruses because I do not use MS software. If you use Outlook then please do not put my email address in your address-book so that WHEN you get a virus it won't use my address in the >From field.
