Open Source Defense Fund Presented by Kent Radek & David Tascione Heimdall Linux, Inc.

Overview of Talk ¥OSDF? ¥Need for OSDF ¥Goals for OSDF ¥Plans ¥Resources

What are we proposing? ¥What is the Open Source Defense Fund (OSDF) – OSDF should be a community voice dedicated to preserving the right to create, distribute and use free and open source software – Ultimately would be a non-profit organization

Need for OSDF? What issues affect free and open source software? ¥UCITA ¥DeCSS ¥DMCA ¥Software Patents ¥Hijacking Open Standards

UCITA ¥Uniform Computer Information Transaction Act makes every shrink wrap license totally enforceable ¥Problems with UCITA ¥What is the Status of UCITA?

Problems with UCITA ¥Vendors Change Licenses ¥Licenses will be able to restrict free speech ¥Vendors can Control Software Use ¥Reverse Engineering ¥Product Liability

Vendors Change Licenses ¥Microsoft changed the license of Microsoft SQL server to eliminate unlimited use in an intranet environment. ¥This change created a scramble to try and locate the versions of the package with the older license. ¥OSDF's mailing lists will help bring these changes to light.

Licenses Can Restrict Free Speech ¥Under a UCITA license you may be prevented from disclosing security bugs ¥UCITA can also be used to prevent users from sharing information/opinions on software

Vendors Can Control Software Use ¥Microsoft in Visual C++ 6.0's MFC library included a clause preventing the use of the software to develop programs for a non-Microsoft OS. This restricted what a user could use this system for in a totally artificial way. ¥Under UCITA these become legally enforceable. ¥Microsoft fortunately changed this license in a subsequent Service Pack Release (SP3)

Reverse Engineering ¥UCITA can be used to prevent Reverse Engineering ¥E.g. Many printer drivers for Linux have been reverse engineered. UCITA can be used to prevent this from happening.

Product Liability ¥UCITA has provisions that allow developers and software distributors to be held liable for defects in their code. UCITA does have a provision that allows the developers (and the company) to escape liability via the software license. Unfortunately, open source developers could still be liable for code that was released prior to UCITA and that continues to be distributed.

Status of UCITA ¥Where has it been passed – Maryland and Virginia ¥Upcoming states – Washington, D.C. – New Jersey – Louisiana – Oklahoma

DeCSS Case ¥What is the DeCSS Case? ¥Why is this important?

What are the DeCSS cases ¥Status of DeCSS Case? – There are actually three cases. " N.Y. Federal case under 17 U.S.C 1201 (DMCA) " Decision was handed down in favor of the plaintiffs " C.T. Federal case again under 17 U.S.C 1201 " California state case: Revealing trade secrets " Still pending after a preliminary injunction

Background on the DeCSS Cases ¥Content Scrambling System (CSS) is used to encrypt DVD movies ¥No player existed for the Linux platform ¥A player was reverse engineered from information in the public domain ¥MPAA has challenged the right of DeCSS to exist ¥In addition the MPAA has challenged the right to link to sites containing the code

Why is this important? ¥The DeCSS case sets a dangerous precedent for freedom of speech in our future wired world. ¥You are prevented not only from posting the source code, you can not even point to a site with the code.

Status of DeCSS case? ¥Currently the case is on appeal. The initial decision was in favor of the MPAA. ¥Regardless of the outcome of the case several of the decisions made by the courts (issuing injunctions against linking) will stand as precedent for future cases.

DMCA ¥Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 ¥The DMCA was passed as 17 U.S.C ¥What is DMCA? ¥Problems with DMCA? ¥Why do we have DMCA?

What is DMCA? ¥Even in cases normally covered by fair use, the DMCA prevents bypassing protection or examination of data in digital formats. ¥DMCA can restrict your use of items you own.

Problems with DMCA? ¥ Real Jukebox example – Real was sending personal information to servers at their site. This was discovered by people examining the data sent to Real's site. – Under DMCA, Real could have prevented this information from being found out ¥DeCSS case – DMCA is being used in the DeCSS case

Why do we have DMCA? ¥DMCA is the result of World Intellectual Properties Organization ¥DMCA is also the result of intense lobbying by organizations who know their formats will be reverse engineered – It restricts what you can do with items YOU own

Software Patents ¥Windows Media Format ¥Y2K Patent ¥Open Source and Patents

Windows Media Format ¥Microsoft has patented elements of their new media format. This has effectively made it illegal to create interoperable solutions ¥Microsoft has stopped several companies from implementing their own players for this format

Y2K Patent ¥Bruce Dickens filed for a patent on a Y2K windowing technique. Essentially it said if the year is less than 30, add 100. ¥The patent was applied for Oct. 3, 1996 and was issued as patent #5,806,063 in Sept. 8, ¥Linux had a similar fix in 1991, constituting prior art.

Open Source and Patents ¥Open Source can provide a form of prior art preventing trivial patents from being granted. ¥But patents can also create potential problems for Open Source software developers' desires for interoperability with other software.

Hijacking Open Standards ¥Microsoft implemented Kerberos authentication in Windows ¥Microsoft used a field that was defined as unused in the specification ¥This effectively prevents non-Microsoft machines from using Kerberos authentication with Windows 2000 systems ¥Microsoft threatened to sue Slashdot when they released details of Microsoft's implementation

Goals of OSDF ¥Education ¥Media Friendly ¥Political Awareness

Education ¥The decisions being made in the courts and congress will impact the developer community for a long time to come ¥Some people do not understand their rights, an obligations, or the consequences of the decisions being made today

Media Friendly ¥Make information available to the media on the issues that affect OSDF – Press releases with non-technical explanations of the topics that affect OSDF – Provide people to answer the media's questions on these topics

Political Awareness ¥With the existence of the internet there is no reason why people should not be aware of who their congress people are. ¥People should also be able to find out how their congresspeople are voting on issues that will effect them.

What OSDF plans to Offer ¥Mailing lists ¥Portal ¥Event Calendar ¥Congressional Locator

Mailing Lists ¥General – Discussion of topics that affect OSDF. Help determine what services to offer ¥Announce – Announcements that affect the community ¥Future lists – Patents, DMCA, UCITA, Legal

Portal ¥ And will become a portal with news and pointers where people can learn more about OSDF and what it stands for.

Event Calendar ¥The Event Calendar will list events that people who are concerned about Open Source should consider attending. ¥E.g. Shortly after the initial case against DeCSS, gatherings were held in cities nationwide to raise awareness about the case.

Congressional Locator ¥Helps you find out who your Congressional representatives are and shows you their voting records. ¥Hopefully, will be expanded to include State representatives and their voting records as available.

Contacting Us ¥OSDF home page – ¥ addresses – – –

References ¥EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) – ¥Privacy Foundation – ¥American Civil Liberties Union –

Call for Help ¥Please join us in setting the future direction of OSDF ¥To do so please join SourceForge and the OSDF project at SourceForge

Q & A ¥Questions?