On 6/13/06, Hank Cohen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Folks,
There has been some discussion of late on this list about Hifn's policy
with respect to releasing documentation to the general public. That
discussion lead to a great deal of uninformed speculation and
unflattering statement's about Hifn's unfriendliness towards the open
source community. I would like to set the record straight.
I agree with others, the tone was correct at this point.
The simple fact is that anyone who wants access to Hifn's documentation
need only log on to our extranet site (http://extranet.hifn.com/home/)
The word simple implies no such thing in this instance. I went to the
site and it asked for me to register. What is that about?
to download as much as they like. This is true of the 795x Algorithm
accelerator chips and the 7855 and 8155 HIPP chips. Some more
restrictions may apply to our NP and flow through part documents.
Specifically the documentation for 7954, 7955 and 7956 is available.
The other chips that are supported by the Open BSD Crypto drivers
hifn(4), lofn(4) and nofn(4) (7751, 7811,7951, 9751, 6500, 7814, 7851
and 7854) are legacy parts that are not recommended for new designs.
The driver will also work for 7954 even though that is not listed.
This does represent some liberalization of access in recent months.
'some liberalization' means that you must compromise personal
information to gain access to docmentation used to sell your product?
Do you realize hifn's target industry?
Hifn is always monitoring its policy with respect to the confidentiality
of documentation and other business information. Some information will
probably always require a non-disclosure agreement. Information that
falls into that category is generally of a sensitive competitive nature,
contains trade secrets or is related to unanounced or unreleased
products.
Noone is asking for this information, why classify the other stuff
like it is ultra-secretive? The only thing gained (lost) is a
community that supports and sells your products for you.
Software licenses are generally restricted in the disclosure or source
code reproduction rights. Hifn reserves the right to keep our source
code proprietary. This should not affect the hifn(4) driver since that
driver is programmed directly to the hardware and does not use Hifn's
enablement software library.
Well, as you stated, it doesn't affect the hifn(4) driver, so why
limit the disclosure of information?
Registration at our extranet is required along with an email address
that can be confirmed. We cannot support anonymous FTP or http
downloads. The reason for this is that we are required by the
conditions of our US export licenses to know who and where our customers
are. If anyone objects to registration then we could not sell them
chips anyway so it does not seem an unreasonable restriction to us.
What terms must be agreed upon when 'logging in' to this site or even
for registration?
It clearly asks when 'registering' for access 'Does your company
currently have an NDA/CDA with Hifn?'
No. Luckily, it's not required, or so it says.
After logging in, guess what is shown:
"Welcome new user. It normally requires several hours for our staff to
receive your new user registration and assign the appropriate
permissions to you. You will be unable to browse folders or access
files until we upgrade your access. You will be notified via email as
soon as your permissions have been set. Thank you for your patience.
Regards,
Brian Sparks
(408) 399-3520
[EMAIL PROTECTED] "
Is this the link that you refer to for the documentation?
http://extranet.hifn.com/home/content/documents/?id=1736
If so, why not just make it publicly available? There was NO
information submitted that is verified other than eMail address, nor
any agreements signed that bind anyone to anything.
If anything, why not PROVIDE these 7956 Reference kits to developers?
Hifn owes THEM that much for all the hard work they do.
This is 'available documentation'? Are you seriously defending this
on a public mailing list?
Yes, free available documentation. What else lurks under these
proprietary PDF formats strewn about the site? And if they're
accessible by normal means, sans agreement, why can't they just be
posted without regard to registration or agreement? There is no
purpose for the compromise of personal information.
I hope that this clears the air.
It doesn't. You're asking for the OpenBSD community, and especially
developers, to compromise the very values that have made OpenBSD what
it is today. I used to buy hifn products because they were
supported..and they 'just worked'. Now, I have no choice but to look
elsewhere. Don't think for a second that for ever person who posts a
complaint, there won't be a hundred thousand others who will read this
thread at some point and wonder if hifn is really the right choice for
their application.
Hank, did you really think that the legalese was in hifn's best
interests? Hifn's customers' interests? Congratulations, you've now
paid your attorneys to decrease support, and consequently, business.
Instead of removing the driver from the kernel, why not rename it to
byefn(4)?
