Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!bionet!agate!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!po.CWRU.Edu!alw From: alw@po.CWRU.Edu (Alice L. Withaar) Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.ibmpc Subject: CWRU knowingly violated GNU license for clarkson drivers Message-ID: <1991Mar22.203343.12931@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> Date: 22 Mar 91 20:33:43 GMT Sender: news@usenet.ins.cwru.edu Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, (USA) Lines: 151 Nntp-Posting-Host: cwns4.ins.cwru.edu Article 2533 of cwru.ins.general: >Newsgroups: cwru.ins.general Path: usenet.ins.cwru.edu!po.CWRU.Edu!pdj2 From: pdj2@po.CWRU.Edu (Peter D. Junger) Subject: INS hoist by its own petard Message-ID: <1991Mar21.124538.7489@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> Sender: news@usenet.ins.cwru.edu Nntp-Posting-Host: cwns6.ins.cwru.edu Reply-To: pdj2@po.CWRU.Edu (Peter D. Junger) Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA) Date: Thu, 21 Mar 91 12:45:38 GMT Lines: 134 It would be laughable, were it not so serious. INS, which so solemnly assures us that it would never let us see the source code for the suite of Stanford programs (programs that include the TCPIP and MH software), because that would violate the license agreement with Stanford, has blatantly violated the copyright and license agreement relating to the Clarkson packet drivers by _failing to give us the source code to those programs_. As you will recall, INS removed a posting by Christopher J. Seline on this bulletin board that contained source code demonstrating how one can access the packet drivers that control the ethernet boards in the DOS machines that are connected to CWRUnet (as well as those connected to any other ethernet network). What INS found particularly objectionable was the fact that this program showed how to cause the packet driver to "remove or change the source address on the Ethernet packet." Now, the fact is--and INS doesn't deny this--that the information contained in Seline's source code is publicly available. INS just wants to make it difficult for us to obtain this public information. So I got to thinking about where one could most easily find this information, and the obvious place is: _in the source code for the packet drivers._ Now the packet driver that INS gave me for use in the PS/2 50z in my office (which is equipped with a 3c523 ethernet board) is the 3c523 packet driver written by Russ Nelson and it--and its source code--are available by anonymous FTP from sun.soe.clarkson.edu. So I went and snarfed the source code for the 3c523 packet driver (which is packaged together with the executables and source code for all of Russ Nelson's other packet drivers--including the AT&T packet driver that INS has distributed for use in many, perhaps all, of the AT&T and Zenith machines here on campus--and many useful utilities besides, including one that allows the user "to get/set the packet driver address"). And that source code said that This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, version 1.... You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. But INS had not given me a copy of the GNU--the `G' in GNU is pronounced, GNU is an acronym derived from the recursive statement "GNU's Not Unix"--General Public License. But I had heard of the GNU license--it's quite famous--and anyway it turned out that the package I had obtained from sun.soe.clarkson.edu included the license in a file named COPYING.DOC. The GNU license, among other provisions, permits you to freely copy and distribute a program subject to that license, but only if you "accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable source code." But INS had not given me the source code when they gave me the program. Now I could just not believe that INS would actually violate the license and the University's rule forbidding the use of its computing resources to "copy privately-owned or licensed software ... without prior written approval," especially since a violation of the license would lead automatically to a revocation of INS's right to make use of the packet drivers. So I checked with Russ Nelson to see if packet drivers really were subject to the GNU license and, if they were, whether he had given INS an exemption. And here's Nelson's reply: --------------------Reply from Nelson to PDJ------------------------------- Received: from omnigate.clarkson.edu by po.CWRU.Edu with SMTP (5.61+ida+/CWRU-1.7.3) id AA26420; Mon, 18 Mar 91 14:00:54 -0500 (from nelson@sun.soe.clarkson.edu for /usr/local/bin/m2mbox /u/52/pdj2/mbox) Received: from sun.soe.clarkson.edu by omnigate.clarkson.edu id aa19259; 18 Mar 91 11:25 EST Received: by sun.soe.clarkson.edu (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA14553; Mon, 18 Mar 91 11:25:41 EST Date: Mon, 18 Mar 91 11:25:41 EST From: Russ Nelson Message-Id: <9103181625.AA14553@sun.soe.clarkson.edu> To: pdj2@po.cwru.edu Cc: cjs@po.cwru.edu, snx6@po.cwru.edu In-Reply-To: "Peter D. Junger"'s message of 17 Mar 91 15:02:37 EST <9103172005.AA08767@po.CWRU.Edu> Subject: Gnu Software License and packet drivers Reply-To: "aka NELSON@CLUTX.BITNET" Before I go on the warpath, I just want to confirm that the Clarkson Packet Drivers are subject to the Gnu Software License and that no exemption from the requirement of supplying source code for the drivers has been granted to the Information Network Services ("INS") of Case Western Reserve University. No such exception has been (or would be) granted. INS gave me a copy of 3c523.com with no source code and without the information that I was entitled to the source code. That violates the copyright. BTW, you may be interested in seeing a message I received from someone at CWRU, and my reply to it. -russ To: edguer@alpha.ces.cwru.edu In-reply-to: Aydin Edguer's message of Fri, 15 Mar 91 21:33:27 -0500 <9103160233.AA20429@charlie.CES.CWRU.Edu> Subject: Clarkson Packet drivers Reply-to: nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu (aka NELSON@CLUTX.BITNET) I understand that release 9.X of the Clarkson packet drivers will include a utility to *change* the Ethernet address used. As a utility with such a high capacity for abuse, may I ask why it is being distributed? It's always been there, it was just broken in the 8.x (and maybe 7.x, I haven't checked) release. I agree that it can be abused. -russ --------------------End of Reply from Nelson to PDJ--------------------- So there you have it. INS in its efforts to suppress publicly available information has violated the University's rules that forbid the unauthorized copying of software and has violated Russ Nelson's copyright in the packet driver's. INS should, of course, immediately stop using, copying, and distributing the packet drivers. (We to whom INS gave the packet drivers, on the other hand, are OK, so long as we don't violate the license agreement.) But how they can straighten out their past violations is beyond me, though clearly their first step must be to make their peace with Russ Nelson. Peter D. Junger Professor of Law -- Peter D. Junger--CWRU Law School--pdj2 JUNGER@CWRU.bitnet JUNGER@CWRU.CWRU.EDU.internet