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 From : Sergey Lentsov                       2:4615/71.10   31 Aug 2001  15:51:44
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 Subject : URL: http://www.lwn.net/2001/0830/
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 Leading items and editorials
 
    Sklyarov: the U.S. raises the stakes. Last week's delay in Dmitry
    Sklyarov's arraignment fed hopes that some sort of agreement was being
    pursued that would allow Dmitry Sklyarov to go free. No such luck. On
    August 28, a federal grand jury sent down an indictment charging both
    Sklyarov and Elcomsoft with trafficking in a copyright circumvention
    device. For good measure, they threw in a set of conspiracy charges as
    well.
    
    As a result, Mr. Sklyarov faces a total of five counts; if found
    guilty, he could be sentenced to 25 years in prison and a
    $2.25 million dollar fine. In other words, he could be a guest of the
    U.S. prison system long after the mere armed robbers, rapists, and
    child molesters are allowed back into society.
    
    It will be interesting to see how the U.S. decides to pursue the
    indictment against Elcomsoft the company; it's hard to sentence a
    corporation to jail. Elcomsoft President Alex Katalov is showing some
    serious bravery by [38]remaining in the U.S. despite all that has
    happened.
    
    The U.S. government, clearly, is serious about this prosecution.
    Somebody, somewhere, wants to put an immediate and forceful stop to
    the creation of "circumvention devices" and the exposure of third-rate
    encryption schemes. The raising of the stakes may be an attempt to
    intimidate Mr. Sklyarov into pleading guilty to a lesser charge, or
    perhaps the government wishes to make an example of him that nobody
    can ignore. One way or another, we are now seeing the degree of
    repression that the U.S. is willing to apply to ensure that certain
    kinds of software are not written.
    
    It is time for the free software community worldwide to get serious as
    well. This is a threat we can not ignore. If this prosecution is
    successful, we will certainly see an increasing number of attempts to
    control, with force, how we can use our computers and what software we
    can write.
    
    It takes very little imagination to picture a future where the
    general-purpose computer has been replaced by a "[39]trusted computing
    platform" and systems which do not "seal data within domains" are
    treated as "circumvention devices." At what point, exactly, does Linux
    become an illegal device under the DMCA? In a world where programmers
    face 25-year sentences for code that was legal where they wrote it,
    this vision should not be seen as overly paranoid.
    
    It is time to get serious. How can that be done?
      * Write code. The wide distribution of PGP years ago had a profound
        effect on attempts to restrict cryptographic software. Free
        software is difficult to control; there is no easy target like the
        one Elcomsoft provided with its proprietary offerings. The more
        code that is out there, the freer we all will be.
      * Attend protests. Many will be happening on August 30, of course,
        to mark the arraignment. But we will have to make ourselves seen
        and heard for a long time thereafter. See the [40]event calendar
        on the [41]FreeSklyarov.org site for the definitive list of
        events.
      * Pressure the political system. U.S. citizens should be writing to
        their congressional representatives asking them to apply pressure
        for Dmitry Sklyarov's release, and to push for a repeal of the
        DMCA. Web pages exist to help you find your [42]House and
        [43]Senate representatives. Note that snail mail tends to be more
        effective than email.
        Those of you outside the U.S. can raise awareness within your
        governments, and work to ensure that DMCA-like legislation is not
        passed in your country. DMCAish laws have been proposed in
        numerous countries; now is the time to show where such laws lead.
        The DMCA should not be allowed to infect countries beyond the U.S.
      * Tell people about what is going on. Write letters to the local
        newspaper. The Sklyarov case remains unknown to much of the
        non-technical population; that needs to change.
      * Contribute money. A [44]legal defense fund has been set up to help
        pay Dmitry's expenses. The [45]EFF is also expending considerable
        resources on this case (and others), and could benefit from your
        membership.
        
    It is also time to consider pulling Adobe's name back into this whole
    affair. It is Adobe that started this particular prosecution; the
    company should not, at this point, be able to get out with one simple
    joint press release with the EFF. Adobe started this thing; it should
    help end it.
    
    The free software community is faced with a challenge that is far more
    daunting than that of creating a top-quality, free operating system.
    Most of us are well out of our competence and comfort when dealing
    with this sort of oppressive politics. But this issue is going to come
    to us, whether we choose to address it or not. We can win this fight;
    even in the U.S., justice can usually be made to prevail. But it is
    going to take an effort beyond just putting "free Sklyarov" in our
    .signature files.
    
    The Sklyarov story is developing quickly; see the [46]LWN.net Daily
    Updates Page for the latest news. (See also: [47]the EFF advisory on
    the Sklyarov indictment. The indictment itself is available [48]in PDF
    format. The [49]Free-Sklyarov mailing list is a good, if occasionally
    high bandwidth, source of information and rallying point.)
    
    VA Linux goes proprietary? VA Linux Systems started off with [50]the
    bad news: in its fiscal fourth quarter, the company managed to lose an
    amazing $5.58 per share. Much of this loss ($267 million) is a result
    [51][VA Logo] of the company's exit from the hardware business. Losses
    in the upcoming quarters will be less, which is a good thing.
    
    Losses are going to have to keep getting smaller, though. The current
    projection is for a loss of $10 to $13 million in the next quarter. VA
    Linux Systems currently has $83 million in the bank, of which it
    expects to burn $6 million above its loss in the first quarter of
    fiscal 2002. That can not be sustained for very many quarters before
    something has to give.
    
    The next bit of news out of VA Linux was, to some observers, even
    worse. In [52]a letter to SourceForge users, the company explained
    that it plans to start offering commercial versions of the SourceForge
    software that include proprietary components. The nature of those
    components has not been made all that clear; it seems to include glue
    to integrate SourceForge with customer-owned proprietary systems (such
    as databases).
    
    Interestingly, [53]SourceForge.net, the free software development
    site, will be using a version of the SourceForge software with
    proprietary components. From [54]the FAQ:
    
      SourceForge.net will be using SourceForge Portal Edition, which
      will also include proprietary extensions, because it provides
      functionality that won't be available in future releases of
      SourceForge Open Edition.
      
    So developers of free software on SourceForge.net will be using
    proprietary software to do their work.
    
    A different spin on VA's new business direction can be found in
    [55]Eric Raymond's mailing. According to Eric, VA is not changing its
    focus as an open source company in any way, it's just finding a way to
    more readily sell its free software and services by catering to the
    conservative instincts of middle managers.
    
      What VA is doing instead is throwing a sop to those instincts by
      hanging some proprietary tinsel off the product. This makes it
      psychologically easier for Mr. Middle Manager to sign the check; he
      can think "I'm buying something real" -- as if bits on a disk are
      more real than the people-hours in the service contract that goes
      with it. But there it is; most sales and marketing is founded on
      the reality that people aren't very rational.
      
    This, of course, is not a particularly complimentary attitude for a
    company to take toward its customers, but there may be some truth
    there. Maybe a bit of "proprietary tinsel" will succeed in making the
    SourceForge product more appealing to certain classes of customers.
    The proof will be in VA's results in the coming quarters.
    
    It is difficult to criticize VA for doing what it thinks it needs to
    do to survive. If selling tinsel allows the company to continue to
    exist, employ free software developers, and operate SourceForge.net,
    then perhaps it is the best thing for the company to do.
    SourceForge.net, in particular, is a heavy, expensive commitment to
    the free software community. The lower VA's cash reserve gets, the
    more concerned SourceForge users (i.e. all of us, in one way or
    another) should be. As long as VA respects the licenses of the
    software it works with (and there are not allegations to the
    contrary), one can only wish the company luck as it looks for the
    combination that actually makes money.
    
    Still, it is disturbing to consider the implication that excellent
    free software and services are not, themselves, sufficient to sustain
    a business the size of VA. That, certainly, is not the conclusion that
    many in the free software community were hoping to reach. Perhaps, as
    Eric Raymond says, the need for proprietary add-ons is temporary. And
    certainly the current economic climate is not helping. But it would
    have been nice to have more clear-cut free software business success
    stories by now.
    
    Linux as a sound business move. [56]Last week's History Page included
    a quote from a three-year-old ZDNet article:
    
      Technically, Linux might be a reasonable choice, but what kind of
      company is going to rely on unsupported freeware or something
      that's supported by two tiny vendors? Rejecting Linux is a
      straightforward business decision. If it were supported by an IBM
      or a Hewlett-Packard, then that would be an entirely different
      matter.
      
    That sort of stuff is always fun to pull out for a quick laugh; some
    of us, after all, had no doubts of Linux's bright future even in the
    prehistoric days of 1998. There is an interesting thing to note here,
    though: nobody talks that way anymore. One might reasonably question
    whether running a Linux business is a reasonable decision, but running
    a business on Linux is no longer controversial.
    
    As an example of how entirely different the matter really is, consider
    [57]this press release from IBM. It seems that the Securities Industry
    Automation Corporation (SIAC) is moving its "ARTMAIL" system to an IBM
    zServer running Linux. ARTMAIL operates as part of the New York and
    American stock exchanges, generating transaction reports for brokers.
    
    It's hard to imagine a more conservative environment for Linux than
    the shuffling of financial data for the highest-volume stock exchange
    on the planet. Linux users will not doubt that the system can handle
    that sort of task; the fact that stock brokers now understand as well
    says a lot. Using Linux is not just a straightforward business
    decision; it's often the best decision.
    
    Inside this LWN.net weekly edition:
      * [58]Security: A new SELinux release.
      * [59]Kernel: Whither 2.5?; min() and max() again; smarter
        readahead.
      * [60]Distributions: LNX-BBC reviewed; Linux DA for the Palm;
        Omoikane GNU/Linux.
      * [61]On the Desktop: KOffice 1.1 released, Webmin on Debian,
        Progress from Sun's Desktop Division.
      * [62]Development: The GPLFarm, MontaVista Library Optimizer, Jabber
        News, new FLTK, GNOME Accessibility, profiling multi-threaded
        Python, Automake 1.5.
      * [63]Commerce: Cluster solutions; lots of LinuxWorld announcements.
      * [64]History: Corel's Linux plans through the years; Red Hat and
        LASER5 part ways; OSDL's first year.
      * [65]Letters: Richard Stallman and freedom; entropy; VA Linux.
        
    ...plus the usual array of reports, updates, and announcements.
    
    This Week's LWN was brought to you by:
      * [66]Jonathan Corbet, Executive Editor
      * [67]Elizabeth O. Coolbaugh, Managing Editor
      * [68]Michael J. Hammel, Senior Editor
        
    August 30, 2001
    
                               [69]Click Here 
    
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    [72]Eklektix, Inc. Linux powered! Copyright Л 2001 [73]Eklektix, Inc.,
    all rights reserved
    Linux (R) is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds
 
 References
 
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 UX
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   72. http://www.eklektix.com/
   73. http://www.eklektix.com/
 
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