On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 12:17 PM, ilf <[email protected]> wrote: > Multiple leakes documents show the product portfolio for the "Governmental > IT Intrusion and Remote Monitoring Solutions" FinSpy/FinFisher/Fin* by > company group Gamma: > > http://wikileaks.org/spyfiles/files/0/299_GAMMA-201110-FinFisher_Product_Portfolio-en.pdf > https://app.box.com/s/zy01xx7p9s9g6wjmkryy > > These include Live CDs and bootable CDs. One of the authors previously > worked on http://www.backtrack-linux.org/, so it's possible that these are > based on a simliar Linux distro. Also, many screenshots implicate that some > of the used tools are forks of popular FLOSS like nmap, zenmap, kismet, > aircrack-ng and so on. > > IANAL. And I am not an expert on the GPL or GPL-violations. But do you see > possible GPL violations here?
no (because it's internal use, not distribution) >Do you see a possibility for action? no... but the U.S. Govt is required by law to release all and any software that is developed by funds received from its taxpayers as PUBLIC DOMAIN yes really actually PUBLIC DOMAIN not just under a random free software license. unless there is a really good over-riding reason for doing otherwise [such as "it's classified"]. this is why NASA releases so much of the source code of the work that it does, and it's why nist.gov's STS (statistical test suite) is Public Domain. so in this case, if it were demonstrated that the modifications made to those GPL'd tools were *not* classified (for example because the U.S. Govt's actions were illegal and thus a case could also be made for them not being classifiaBLE), then they would be required to release those modifications into the Public Domain - not even under the GPL - into the Public Domain. however this has nothing to do with the GPL, and the idea of illegal actions by the U.S. Govt being also not possible to put a secret classification on them is just that: an idea. a mischievous one, admittedly :) l.
