(racoon2 12) Re: racoon2 release

> I did not said "you should have a repository in Europe", I just asked if
> you considered it.  

We did not consider to place the repository in Europe because it is
meaningless if publishing our code may infringe on the rights
although i am not sure that we are sued when we just publish our code.

if we ask an user "where you are ?  are you sure that you wont use the code
outside your country ?" like MIT kerberos code do so, then we can probably
publish our code.  however, we need to investigate whether there is no
patent at the contry.

> The questions I have no answer for are:
> 
> - will you be able to safely contribute patent encumbered code to that
> repository? An european resident will, but I don't know for someone that
> live in a country where software patent are legal. At least some people
> will be able to contribute patent-encumbered code.

have you checked that there is no patent related to IKE, DH or Public
cryptography, etc in Europe?  If there is no patent then you are right.

> - will you be able to safely use the code that come from that
> repository? That's the big question. ipsec-tools contains patent
> encumbered code. We ipsec-tools developpers know it but none of us live
> in a country where software patent are legal. We can safely write, use
> and distribute that code.

I agree that we can safely write and use that code.  I dont agree with
distributing it safely.

> We made all the patent-encumbered code
> optionnal and documented it as such. That way ipsec-tools can be built
> in an IPR-free flavor that can be used in a country where
> software-patent are legal.

Certicom claims to have the IPR related to DH groups.  are you sure
that a code using MODP group 1 does not infringe on the IPR ?
IBM also has a IPR related to DH exchange.  it was raised when S/MIME
was standardised.  Did you remove code related to that ?

> The question whether the source code can be
> distributed in such country is another question. Is a cvs checkout safe?
> I don't know.

my simple question is that:
for example, there is a IPR in U.S., but the IPR is not legal in Europe.
you publish a code contained the IPR from Europe.  an user download the
code to U.S., compile and use it in U.S.  are you sure that you are not
sued from the patent holder in this case ?

I am probably verbous. ;-(