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posted by mrpg on Thursday August 23 2018, @10:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the ffs dept.

ZDNet:

Open-source champion Bruce Perens has called out Intel for adding a new restriction to its software license agreement along with its latest CPU security patches to prevent developers from publishing software benchmark results.

The new clause appears to be a move by Intel to legally gag developers from revealing performance degradation caused by its mitigations for Spectre and Foreshadow or 'L1 Terminal Fault' (L1FT) flaw speculative attacks.

"You will not, and will not allow any third party to ... publish or provide any software benchmark or comparison test results," Intel's new agreement states .

[...] Another section of the license blocking redistribution appears to have caused maintainers of Debian to withhold Intel's patch too , as reported by The Register.

[...] Updated 12:15pm ET, August 23 2018: An Intel spokesperson responded: "We are updating the license now to address this and will have a new version available soon. As an active member of the open-source community, we continue to welcome all feedback."


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  • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @10:35PM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @10:35PM (#725442)

    its called contract law. Yes, they can sue. Yes they can win.

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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @10:49PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 23 2018, @10:49PM (#725452)

    No, violation of license conditions and a license is not a contract. I'm not sure they could win a lawsuit as the terms are onerous, being unilaterally imposed after sale to fix a product defect.

  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Thursday August 23 2018, @10:57PM (7 children)

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Thursday August 23 2018, @10:57PM (#725455) Journal

    They can lose too. Contract law is not an absolute and cannot trump other laws. People cannot be held to a contract that enslaves them, forces them to break other laws, or recklessly endangers others. People also cannot always be held to NDAs and non-compete agreements.

    But this one was lost in the court of public opinion before Intel even thought of trying it. It was a stupid move, and they should have known better. The powerful have to be repeatedly reminded that they are not above the law or the people. Wonder which moron thought this attempt at censorship was a good idea? The CEO?

    • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday August 23 2018, @11:35PM (6 children)

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Thursday August 23 2018, @11:35PM (#725470) Homepage

      Can't somebody just publish an anonymous article (with easily repeatable results) and then have a trusted buddy in the tech journalism industry publish it? Intel's Jewish lawyers probably thought of that one, too, but maybe not well enough to cover their asses from that extra abstraction-layer.

      • (Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday August 24 2018, @12:22AM (5 children)

        by bzipitidoo (4388) on Friday August 24 2018, @12:22AM (#725489) Journal

        Sounds like Intel's lawyers did think of that: "You ... will not allow any third party..."

        But I expect a contract agreement can't oblige one of the parties to become a vigilante. Does Intel seriously expect recipients of their patches to monitor and restrain thousands of users? Did they even think about what they were asking of Linux distro maintainers?

        • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday August 24 2018, @01:10AM (4 children)

          by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 24 2018, @01:10AM (#725511) Journal

          As a Linux User, and part of the worldwide Linux Users Group, I don't exactly answer to anyone. Whatever I do, is not by "permission". Linus Torvalds does not "permit" me to do much of anything. I can run benchmarks all day long (or all month long) and publish the results wherever I wish. My readership base is just about nil now, but the Streisand effect would probably cause that to balloon in no time at all. And, I have never signed a contract with Intel or any other tech giant.

          In all of the world, is there not one single (already existing and circulated) tech publication with the freedom that I enjoy?

          • (Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday August 24 2018, @01:56AM (1 child)

            by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Friday August 24 2018, @01:56AM (#725536) Homepage

            It appears to me that you are all chickenshit bastards.

            • (Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Friday August 24 2018, @02:11AM

              by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Friday August 24 2018, @02:11AM (#725549) Journal

              You should stop looking at the world through your chickenshit colored glasses. Try those silly rose colored glasses. Lev Sheckelzoid recommends them!

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @05:52AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @05:52AM (#725653)

            What if you just find one of these computers with the patch at a garage sale or whatever?

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @10:33AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 24 2018, @10:33AM (#725730)

            As a Linux User, and part of the worldwide Linux Users Group, I don't exactly answer to anyone. Whatever I do, is not by "permission". Linus Torvalds does not "permit" me to do much of anything.

            You're quite wrong about that. Torvalds permits you to do pretty much: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/plain/COPYING?h=v4.18 [kernel.org]