OpenBSD遭美國防部撤資

[Tetralet]

CNET新聞專區：Robert Lemos　　18/04/2003

原本贊助開發OpenBSD開放原始碼作業系統的DARPA機構(國防部高級研究研究計畫局)決定抽走剩餘資金，原因不明。

專案召集人Theo de Raadt周四表示，他是經由email被告知剩餘尚未使用的230萬美元贊助經費已經被取消。負責管理此項經費的教授並沒有在email中告知原因，但de Raadt表示原因不外乎他最近對外發表一些反戰言論，以及有人關切經費流向太多外國開發人員。

「他們決定不要再繼續這項計畫。」de Raadt周四收到通知後半小時後便告知外界此事。「所以現在已經全部結束了。」

DARPA機構是美國國防部旗下單位，專門贊助研發計畫，最知名的便是後來衍生成網際網路的技術。de Raadt表示，DARPA在2001年撥下這筆經費給OpenBSD作為CHATS(可重組高保證信賴系統)專案研究的一部份。

OpenBSD屬於開放原始碼作業系統，被公認是目前最安全的「類Unix」系統版本。專案小組以使用100萬美元增加OpenBSD的安全功能，並在經費核准後三個月便已完成多數工作，近來則利用這筆經費來添增更多軟體安全強化功能，de Raadst表示。

de Raadt表示，本周曾有人告訴他，DARPA官員很關切媒體報導部分經費撥給國外研究人員的事情，這顯然犯了政府贊助款項的大忌。他另表示，他最近曾公開表示，多一點經費贊助他的計畫，可少建造幾顆巡弋飛彈，這番話也可能觸怒美國政府。

「美國現在已經沒有言論自由可言了。」de Raadt表示。

他估計原本經費大概用了85%，剩餘的部分若沒收回去可支撐半年。「目前僅剩的經費就是我的薪水了。」他說。

該專案小組預定在周五推出3.3版的OpenBSD，原本盒裝背後提及DARPA贊助的字眼將用貼紙遮蓋起來。(陳奭璁摘譯)


原文網址：http://taiwan.cnet.com/news/ec/story/0,2000022589,20072666,00.htm

[Tetralet]

另一篇類似報導：

DARPA pulls funding for OpenBSD
Project leader says move is retaliation for anti-war comments

By Grant Gross April 18, 2003


The U.S. military has pulled funding from a project involving the OpenBSD open-source operating system, according to the operating system's project leader, and he suspects it was in retaliation for anti-war comments of his that were published in a Canadian newspaper.

Theo de Raadt, leader of the OpenBSD project, said he found out Thursday that the remaining funding had been pulled on a $2.3 million Portable Open-Source Security Enhancements project at the University of Pennsylvania , run through the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The project was part of DARPA'sComposable High Assurance Trusted Systems project (http://www.darpa.mil/ato/programs/chats.htm), which focuses on protecting computer systems from malicious code.

About 15 percent of the funding, awarded in mid-2000, had remained unspent, de Raadt estimated. According to de Raadt, two days before the funding was cut off, Jonathan Smith, the University of Pennsylvania computer science professor in charge of the project there, phoned de Raadt. Smith told de Raadt that several people at the university and DARPA were uncomfortable with de Raadt's anti-war comments, which appeared in the Globe & Mail of Toronto in early April.

But a DARPA spokeswoman denied that de Raadt is being punished for his remarks. De Raadt is mistaken about funding being cut off, she said; rather, DARPA is reviewing the University of Pennsylvania project.

"As part of our standard process, we are reviewing and evaluating the work now being done and proposed to be done in the future," spokeswoman Jan Walker wrote in an e-mail. "We will not state in advance the result of our review process, but we have no a priori intention to end the research effort. We're sorry if this review process has been misinterpreted as an effort to cancel the work."

In the Globe & Mail story, the resident of Calgary, Canada , said the current U.S. war against Iraq "sickens" him. De Raadt also said he was uncomfortable taking money from the U.S. military, but "I try to convince myself that our grant means a half of a cruise missile doesn't get built." The story is at http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/stor ... ry=openbsd.

Smith refused to comment on the reasons why the OpenBSD funding was pulled. "I'm not going to discuss it," Smith said before hanging up the phone.

"He was quite upset," de Raadt said of his conversation with Smith. "I was a little bit upset myself to hear a tenured professor telling me not to exercise my freedom of speech."

The loss of funding has left members of the OpenBSD project scrambling to pull off a "hackathon" development meeting in Calgary from May 8 to 20, but de Raadt said he expects that the group will be able to continue with arrangements without the DARPA funding. OpenBSD Version 3.3 is due to be released May 1.

The DARPA money paid for de Raadt's and at least three other developers' salaries, de Raadt said. But the project in the past has run off donations, and de Raadt said he's already gotten several offers of donations since he sent out an e-mail Thursday detailing the loss of funding.

"We'll just go back to donations or try to get other grants," de Raadt said. "Maybe now that we've actually lost the DARPA grant, people will know enough about us that we can go apply for [other] grants."

De Raadt said he's disappointed with the DARPA decision, but promised that OpenBSD will continue to move forward.

"If they take it away, it's blood money, and I don't want blood money," he said. "If they're upset by me making antiwar statements, and they take the money away for that reason, then fine. Freedom of speech in the U.S. doesn't apply to noncitizens."



原文網址：http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/04/18/HNdarpa_1.html

[Tetralet]

這裡也有相關資訊：（轉載自『反微軟資訊新聞』）

美國一直號稱是一個自由民主，尊重言論自由的國家；不過自從美伊戰爭開打以來，全世界的人大概都看到了美國政府基本上在箝制言論自由、操作媒體的功力上面絕對不輸給任何一個共產國家。例如瑪丹娜因為在音樂錄影帶裡面包含了有反戰嫌疑的內容而被迫重新製作；CNN原本還在報導伊拉克被美軍佔領之後到處都發生暴民搶劫公共設施的畫面，在國防部長倫斯斐表達對這樣的報導內容不滿的兩天之後，CNN馬上出現伊拉克的治安已經大幅改善、伊拉克人民因為被美軍統治之後可以自由收看衛星電視頻道而感到自由的可貴...這一類的宣導短片。

現在這種白色恐怖也開始影響到科技業了。根據報導，美國的 DARPA(國防部研究發展中心) 已經決定要取消對 OpenBSD計劃的經費贊助；原因是 OpenBDS計劃的領導人 Theo de Raadt於今年四月初的時候在一份加拿大的報紙 Globe & Mail of Toronto上面發表了有反戰嫌疑的言論。當時 Raadt先生在該報上面表示美伊戰爭讓他覺得噁心，每次當他一想到 OpenBSD的經費也是從美國國防部來的時候就覺得心理不安，不過他試著說服自己這筆經費 (兩百三十萬美金) 讓美國政府可以少買半顆飛彈，也算是功德一件。這篇報導一出來沒多久 Raadt先生就被通知 DARPA原先撥給 OpenBSD的經費已經全數被刪除。

OpenBSD和 Linux、FreeBSD、NetBSD等開放原始碼的作業系統一樣，都是可以免費下載取得的。雖然 OpenBSD的知名度沒有 Linux和 FreeBSD那麼高，它在安全性方面的表現非常非常優異；過去七年以來，它只出現過一次安全漏洞。如果拿微軟的 Windows來比，Windows大概每七個小時就會出現一個安全漏洞，可見 OpenBSD的品質相當高。 OpenBSD的安全性之所以會這麼高一方面是因為美國國防部希望能夠有一套絕對安全的作業系統來執行最機密的應用軟體，因此 DARPA在這幾年來一直是 OpenBSD的主要贊助者。在失去 DARPA的經費贊助之後，OpenBSD可能會面臨斷炊的命運。不過原先預定在五月舉行的 OpenBSD hackathon大會還是會如期舉行。

原文網址：http://members.tripod.com/~anti_ms/

[訪客]

這就是我一直很納悶的疑問，在美國國內為啥不能反戰，難道愛好和平是一種錯。

聽說有一些反戰的藝人，目前被受打壓，難道是一言堂的效果。

應該還是會有很多不同的聲音吧，網站上那麼暢通，應該會有人提出譴責吧。