http://mashable.com/2013/09/19/linus-torvalds-backdoor-linux/
No, the Government Never Asked Linus Torvalds for a Backdoor in Linux
"Oh, Christ. It was obviously a joke, no government agency has ever asked
me for a backdoor in Linux," Torvalds told *Mashable* via email. "Really.
Cross my heart and hope to die, really."
On Thu, Sep 19, 2013 at 5:19 PM, Andy Isaacson
On Thu, Sep 19, 2013 at 02:48:37PM -0500, CypherPunk wrote:
On 09/19/2013 02:39 PM, Tom Ritter wrote:
Torvalds responded "no" while shaking his head "yes," as the audience broke into spontaneous laughter.
Is there any indication he took the question seriously and wasn't just making a joke? This is a lot to conclude from a single sentence.
While he certainly could have been being humorous, I can't see why he would have indicated 'yes' for any reason.
Because it's funny, and one of the ways that humans deal with stressful situations is through humor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theories_of_humour#Humor_as_defense_mechanism
Having seen Linus give many talks through the years, I can assure you that he might make such a joke regardless of the true situation.
I mean, he could have made a funny comment or something sarcastic or any number of other responses. The shaking his head yes while saying now would seem to indicate that he's been told not to say that he's been asked.
Or it might indicate that he knew it would get a laugh from the audience. It's invalid to read detail into a single such comment.
It would seem logical that he would have been approached though. I mean, they want total tech coverage. Why would Linux escape their attention?
It would seem logical, yes. It would also seem logical for Them (tm) to game-theory two more stages, and specifically avoid asking the most prominent maintainers in favor of pressuring or encouraging lower-level contributors to insert (or avoid fixing) bugdoors. I don't think we have enough information to make an informed judgement which scenario has happened.
-andy