:: Re: [Libbitcoin] License - what abo…
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Author: Eric Voskuil
Date:  
To: Peter Todd
CC: libbitcoin@lists.dyne.org
Subject: Re: [Libbitcoin] License - what about a truly free license (humble and extremely important enquiry for the project)
I agree. There is little if any commercial (or other) value to be gained in serving up or distributing Bitcoin software without full source disclosure.

Really we have the opposite problem. We need to make it easier for the user to prove that the software he/she is running is intended. Deterministic build is hard. And of course even with source, ensuring correctness is also very hard (as highlighted by the recent trail of SSL/TLS bugs/backdoors). Them there's the hardware...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tailored_Access_Operations

e

Sent from my iPhone

> On May 13, 2014, at 8:52 AM, Peter Todd <pete@???> wrote:
>
> On Tue, May 13, 2014 at 04:33:50PM +0200, mlmikael wrote:
>
> I gotta catch a flight, so I'll keep this short.
>
> For Bitcoin and other security related software a key issue is that
> source code *must* be available to the user in all circumstances so that
> they can be sure the code has not been backdoored or otherwise
> compromised. Very strongly opensource licenses, such as the Affero GPL,
> provide that guarantee in ways that lesser and *less* free, licenses do
> not. Remember that when we talk about freedom, we're talking about the
> user's freedom to use, modify, and inspect the software that keeps their
> Bitcoins safe and protects their privacy, not the freedom of people who
> want to restrict that right.
>
> Thus I strongly support distributing LibBitcoin under the maximally free
> license possible, the Affero GPL.
>
> Now we should be pragmatic about this, and give users some guidance
> about how to comply with the Affero GPL license requirements, but that
> is a separate discussion.
>
>> Dear Amir and list,
>>
>> Originating from the conversation on Bignums, I went through the
>> conditions of LibBitcoin's license.
>>
>> LibBitcoin's present license is the GNU Affero General Public
>> License version 3, found at
>> http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.html . It states that
>
> --
> 'peter'[:-1]@petertodd.org
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