[Fedora-legal-list] Legality of staple / unstaple

Michel Salim michel.sylvan at gmail.com
Thu Mar 5 21:04:54 UTC 2009


staple / unstaple is an all-or-nothing data "binder" / unbinder,
licensed under the BSD license.

http://sysnet.ucsd.edu/projects/staple/

The author raises a concern that unstaple might be considered illegal
due to its ability to brute-force the stapled file, and the FAQ listed
some use cases involving misappropriation of intellectual property
(the pirated file is combined with the author's own files, stapled
together, and attempts to unstaple this collection arguably violates
the DMCA).

In view of this, staple is shipped separately from unstaple. Would
either, or both, be acceptable in Fedora? Could we get staple in
Fedora and unstaple in some non-US repositories?

This software has been discussed on Bruce Schneier's blog:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/03/all-or-nothing.html#comments

Thanks,

-- 
miʃel salim  •  http://hircus.jaiku.com/
IUCS         •  msalim at cs.indiana.edu
Fedora       •  salimma at fedoraproject.org
MacPorts     •  hircus at macports.org




More information about the Fedora-legal-list mailing list