[h2o-discuss] Mission: Source-Out!

["Jon Garfunkel" <garf@look.boston.ma.us>]

Gee, I was hoping to elicit some response for my challenge to Lessig. Maybe
nobody cares? Maybe my writing was not so clear? with phrases like:

>Obviously [X] causes value disagreeable fallout, "control of information."


Ok, I'm not schooled in cyberlaw. I'm a professional coder.

This weekend, with the help of a collaborator on the www-annotations list, I
will be leading a "Source-Out" mission. We're getting the source out of
proprietary product (more specifically, the networking protocols)--
ThirdVoice.

1. We've already established on this list that web-annotation software is a
good idea.
2. Zittrain has endorsed ThirdVoice software as a good idea.
3. I added that it would be much better if the company distributed server
software, or at the least, published their networking protocols. I asked for
this ThirdVoice some months ago, and they denied my request.

By reading packets, I am researching the protocol used by the client
software, and will publish a specification. Someone else will write the
server code to work with the spec.

I believe Microsoft has been undergoing a Source-Out mission of AOL's AIM.
There are also well-publicized analogues in the security world, where
secuirty hackers undertake a similar mission to find security
vulnerabilities.

Just some questions:
1. Does BCIS/H20 support the concept of "Source-Out", and this mission in
particular?
2. Should Source-Out Missions include in their strategy some formal request
to the vendor? (ie, "we'd like to know your protocol.")
    - the plus side is it that it's diplomatic, and it saves me from doing
the research.
    - the minus is that it might alert their lawyers, they might pull an AOL
and change the protocol, or they could quell our publicity.
3. In the OpenSource universe, Source-Out is ethical, but what does legal
code say and what can software licenses enforce? With ThirdVoice, I can't
find in the ToS anything about changing the client software.

Jon

------------------------

FYI, I define "value disagreeable fallout" as:
    A side effect which is good or bad, depending on your perspective.


Jon Garfunkel
Software Engineer
Route 128, Mass.