Re: Another new worm???

[crispin () WIREX COM (Crispin Cowan)]

Andrew Reiter wrote:

> On Thu, 22 Jun 2000, Crispin Cowan wrote:
>
> |If "free" == "libre" (GPL) then the license would compel disclosure of the
> |source code, which would in turn disqualify such a project from the requirement
> |to not distribute information outside the group.  A policy that makes it
> |impossible to write a GPL'd product says rather clearly that it is a bad policy.
> |
>
> NOTE:  GPL states the source must be _machine_ readable.  It does not have
> to be human readable.  While any obfuscation can be reversed to make sense
> to those not sick in the head, it still sucks.

Actually, it does say that the source must be human readable.  I'm going to cheat
and actually quote from the GPL :-) in the paragraph immediately following point 3.:

     The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
     making modifications to it.  For an executable work, complete source
     code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
     associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
     control compilation and installation of the executable.  However, as a
     special exception, the source code distributed need not include
     anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
     form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
     operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
     itself accompanies the executable.

The important part is "means the preferred form of the work for making modifications
to it".  Obfusticated source is not good enough to be GPL compliant.

Crispin

--
Crispin Cowan, CTO, WireX Communications, Inc.    http://wirex.com
Free Hardened Linux Distribution:                 http://immunix.org