I've noticed a bunch of people thinking that the license on IPF was
changed from BSD to something else. IPF was never under the BSD
license. It was under something that superficially looked a lot like
the BSD license, but never granted the right to modify ("create derived
works"). The license isn't being changed retroactively, only
clarified. The problems is that people ASSumed something about
it that wasn't true; just because it LOOKED like the BSD license
doesn't means it WAS the BSD license.
OpenBSD is, in fact, (slightly) screwed over this one, because they
can't legally ship with IPF; in contrast to what a previous poster
stated, they do not have 6 months; I bet Darren could get an injunction
to stop them from shipping, too, if he wanted to. BTW, this is because
OpenBSD has modified IPF, and that is explicitly contrary to the IPF
license. If they were using vanilla, out-of-the-box shipping IPF,
they'd be cool, with nothing to worry about. The reason it was removed
is because they need to modify it to get it to work properly with
OpenBSD, and they're not allowed to. The -current version, with the
"No redistribution allowed" is a red herring. The real problem (which
Theo et.al. have correctly identified) is that they are not allowed to
modify it according to the license. Furthermore, because they now very
publicly know about this, it would count as wilful copyright violation,
which carries significantly larger penalties.
My guess? OpenBSD writes new firewall code and IPF goes the way of the
dodo, only there are stuffed dodos in museums and IPF won't be
preserved in that fashion. It will fade away, unloved, unsung,
unmissed.
The moral is that Debian is right: CHECK THE LICENSES!
--
Stephen Ryan Debian GNU/Linux
Technology Coordinator
Center for Educational Outcomes
at Dartmouth College
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