*BSD News Article 55988


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From: jkh@violet.berkeley.edu (Jordan K. Hubbard)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: NetBSD camp reaction to OpenBSD?
Date: 4 Dec 1995 03:01:38 GMT
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
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Message-ID: <49toai$e24@agate.berkeley.edu>
References: <30B6A790.41C67EA6@FreeBSD.org> <1995Nov29.102918.7769@wavehh.hanse.de> <49tm37$2hs@cnn.nas.nasa.gov>
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In article <49tm37$2hs@cnn.nas.nasa.gov>,
Jason R. Thorpe <thorpej@lestat.nas.nasa.gov> wrote:
>
>OpenBSD is in an interesting position re. read-only CVS access that the
>other (FreeBSD and NetBSD) camps don't enjoy: the code base is
>unencumbered.  FreeBSD and NetBSD both have RCS files with Net/2 origins.
>Some of these files were later found to be (pr possibly be) tainted
>with AT&T or otherwise encumbered code.  If either project were to allow
>the general public to have access to the first revisions of these files,
>it could mean legal trouble.

I think we're actually pretty clean here, and if we find out otherwise
I certainly would not object to a little cvs admin work or re-importing.

Yes, it can screw up wholesale "let's see what's changed between 2.1
and 2.1" diffs, but in actual practice I've found very little need for
that kind of capability - it's like drinking from a fire hose.

We're not going to find all the bogons in our CVS trees by hiding them
in the dark, and legally we're already way out on limbs if we're exporting
tainted bits to *anyone*.  Do you think the judge is going to differentiate
between 50 hairy guys standing in the corner and the great unwashed in
general?  I doubt that he'd even see a difference.  Just because some of us
may enjoy greater "authority" inside our own projects, don't think that it
affords us any legal protection!  We need to take the same precautions,
whether it's 50 or 50,000.

					Jordan