Military Drops OpenBSD Funding Because of de Raadt's Antiwar Comment
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - The U.S. military's research agency cut off grant money for helping to develop a secure, free operating system after a top programmer made anti-war statements to a major newspaper. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency halted the contract less than two weeks after The Globe and Mail of Toronto published a story in which programmer Theo de Raadt was quoted as saying he was "uncomfortable" about the funding source. "I try to convince myself that our grant means a half of a cruise missile doesn't get built," de Raadt told the newspaper. Within a few days, de Raadt said he received an e-mail from Jonathan Smith, a computer science professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the grant's lead researcher, expressing discomfort over the statements. On Thursday, Smith notified de Raadt of the cancellation. "A tenured professor was telling me not to exercise my freedom of speech," de Raadt said. Smith declined to comment on the matter, and DARPA did not return telephone messages Friday. De Raadt's suspicions about the cancellation could not be confirmed. The $2.3 million grant had funded security improvements to the OpenBSD operating system since 2001 as well as related projects. OpenBSD, a variation of Unix designed for use on servers, is touted as so secure that its default installation has had only one bug in the past seven years. Thousands of copies of OpenBSD have been downloaded in the past six months. It's not clear, however, how many are in use. De Raadt estimates about 85 percent of the DARPA grant has been spent, with about $1 million being used to pay for OpenBSD developers. Much of the work has been handled by a team of 80 unpaid volunteers. Another $500,000 of the money funded the work of United Kingdom-based researchers on a related project called OpenSSL, which is used to encrypt data. DARPA, which oversees research activities for the Pentagon, is best known for developing the network that evolved into the Internet. http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAD9B1KOED.html
On Friday, April 18, 2003, at 02:22 PM, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - The U.S. military's research agency cut off grant money for helping to develop a secure, free operating system after a top programmer made anti-war statements to a major newspaper.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency halted the contract less than two weeks after The Globe and Mail of Toronto published a story in which programmer Theo de Raadt was quoted as saying he was "uncomfortable" about the funding source.
"I try to convince myself that our grant means a half of a cruise missile doesn't get built," de Raadt told the newspaper.
Within a few days, de Raadt said he received an e-mail from Jonathan Smith, a computer science professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the grant's lead researcher, expressing discomfort over the statements.
Not enough bugs in OpenBSD. Not enough back doors in OpenBSD. "If you are using OpenBSD, you are computing with Osama." --Tim May
Major Variola (ret) wrote:
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - The U.S. military's research agency cut off
Another $500,000 of the money funded the work of United Kingdom-based researchers on a related project called OpenSSL, which is used to encrypt data.
OpenSSH, sshurely. Is that UK-based? OpenSSL might well be, at least sort-of, but OpenSSH? I dunno, but I doubt it. There are potential problems ahead for OpenSSL in the UK. The EU dual-use/ (including crypto) export control regulations might be about to be implemented here, under the Export Control Act 2002,.. but it won't affect the actual releases, just talking about them beforehand... -- Peter Fairbrother
Peter Fairbrother wrote:
Major Variola (ret) wrote:
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - The U.S. military's research agency cut off
Another $500,000 of the money funded the work of United Kingdom-based researchers on a related project called OpenSSL, which is used to encrypt data.
OpenSSH, sshurely.
Is that UK-based? OpenSSL might well be, at least sort-of, but OpenSSH? I dunno, but I doubt it.
No, OpenSSL - I know, coz I did most of the work. OpenSSH is not a "related project" it is part of OpenBSD.
There are potential problems ahead for OpenSSL in the UK. The EU dual-use/ (including crypto) export control regulations might be about to be implemented here, under the Export Control Act 2002,.. but it won't affect the actual releases, just talking about them beforehand...
Amusing. Not. Incidentally, OpenSSL is (currently) hosted in Switzerland, if that matters. Cheers, Ben. -- http://www.apache-ssl.org/ben.html http://www.thebunker.net/ "There is no limit to what a man can do or how far he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit." - Robert Woodruff
Ben Laurie wrote:
There are potential problems ahead for OpenSSL in the UK. The EU dual-use/ (including crypto) export control regulations might be about to be implemented here, under the Export Control Act 2002,.. but it won't affect the actual releases, just talking about them beforehand...
Amusing. Not. Incidentally, OpenSSL is (currently) hosted in Switzerland, if that matters.
Cheers,
Ben.
It looks like you'll need a licence (or registration) to run a mirror of the BSD's, Linuxes, etc.. Will probably apply in all EU countries soon. -- Peter Fairbrother
On Fri, 25 Apr 2003, Peter Fairbrother wrote:
It looks like you'll need a licence (or registration) to run a mirror of the BSD's, Linuxes, etc..
Will probably apply in all EU countries soon.
Do you have more informations about this, please? My Wise Government is doing their first and last to join that gang of thughs. I don't think that requiring registration for hosting free software is exactly consistent with their perpetual claims about how free they are and how much more free we will be when we will be assimilated...
participants (5)
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Ben Laurie -
Major Variola (ret) -
Peter Fairbrother -
Thomas Shaddack -
Tim May