Developing Open Source Defense Projects

An anonymous reader writes "I'm a developer looking to develop an open source surface-to-air missile guidance system, with the aim of helping developing nations develop low-cost missile defense systems to aid them against attack by the warplanes of invading forces. However, given the very nature of the project, I feel I may be walking into a bit of a minefield regarding the legalities of such a project, since, as I'm sure you can imagine, this project could easily benefit hostile nations was well as relatively peaceful ones! Unfortunately, since Google does not seem to shed much light on the subject, I'd be very interested in hearing Slashdot's views on the matter, especially some advice from those in the know about the legal matters - whether there would be any restrictions (exports, perhaps?) or whether it would be simply plain illegal to develop!"

Comments

No, think of the horrible consequences!

[The I Shing]

You can't share the technology with other civilizations!

Imagine what will happen if the Terrans start building Protoss cannons that can strike ground and air targets, or the Zerg start equipping Zerglings with stimpacks! The results would... be...

Wait, was that just a computer game?

Re:No, think of the horrible consequences!

[_Sprocket_]

Wait, was that just a computer game?

Shut up and pay attention to what's happening on the screen, Ender.

Re:No, think of the horrible consequences!

[tanguyr]

Clippy: "It looks like you're losing a battle!!!"

My God. Think of the Beta Testers!

[jellomizer]

Well being April 1, I wont take this seriously.

Beta Testing your product will sure be a bitch, and it will be hard to keep good beta testers.

What's wrong with missile command?

[FortKnox]

Missile Command (Atari) works great and is dirt cheap now-a-days.

Another....

[LostCluster]

I'm getting sick of these April Fool's posts... We all already know that Open Source Defense Projects is an oxymoron, you know source has to be closed to be truely secure.

Can we have a real story now?

Re:Another....

[Anonymous Coward]

We all already know that Open Source Defense Projects is an oxymoron, you know source has to be closed to be truely secure.

Not so fast buddy. He was asking for Open Source to be USED for making such a system. Unless he's DISTRIBUTING such system, GPL does not force him/her to open source resulting system, so source could very well remain closed; only army using the system having access to source code.

I guess one could argue that firing a missile that contains Open Source code would constitute distribution, though... so maybe one would have to include cdrom of source code in missile to play it safe? And same would apply to torpedoes, and "smart"(ass) bombs as well.

Just because you don't see utility of Open Source components in building doomsday device doesn't mean no one does!

A solution

[Em Emalb]

The Open Source Hammer in the Sky protocol suite is what you are looking for. I use the OSHITS protocol to defend my small volcanic (it's not active, thankfully) island.
Oh, I also need to mention that OSHITS is GPL-compliant, so feel free to modify it in any way you'd like. It can be found at OSHITS.com*

The OSHITS protocol suite has also been through the legal ringer, in both the EU and the US.

In fact, the Supreme Court and the UN Tribunal Council both agreed, OSHITS is legal and quite good for use. Thanks and have a great day.

*web address doesn't render properly on IE. User must use an old version of Netscape.

Amendment II

[somethinghollow]

Hey, man. You have the right to bear arms. Missiles are arms.

Now lets party.

Re:Amendment II

[FortKnox]

Oh! THATS what the second amendment means!

This whole time I thought it meant you can wear short sleeves or tank tops...

In The Name Of All That Is Holy

[Roofus]

I demand a filter option for 'Stupid April Fools' stories

Re:In The Name Of All That Is Holy

[Lumpy]

that is easy... simply add a entry into your hosts file that points slashdot.org to the IP address of CNN.com

I personally wish that we were allowed to beat sensless anyone who is grumpy today and has no sense of humor... Lik the IT manager in the other 1/2 of the building that deals with that department only.. he didnt like the completely smashed laptop on his desk with a note stating... "it just stopped working, I dont know what happened... can you fix it?" (amazing what a semi truck over a laptop can do :-)

the jerk came over to our devision started screaming about destruction of company property until the regional VP asked him if we have EVER had toshiba laptops in the building.... he shut up walking off mumbling that it was not funny.

so I suggest that you avoid slashdot until April 5th.

we could call it april fools pummling day!

bats

[chimpo13]

You just need to stand at the border with large baseball or cricket bats. Planes hate bats, and bats are sympathetic to American causes. Evil nations would use pointed sticks. So if you develop a system that can tell the difference between pointed sticks (evil) and baseball bats (good), no problem. I'm sure any ol' RFID would be useful in a good American or British bat.

Re:Remember the golden rule...

[RLiegh]

I thought the golden rule was WWJS.

What's really wrong is...

[LostCluster]

Michael isn't intentionally picking April Fools stories. He's actually following his normal selection patern, it's just today that we're willing to consider them jokes....

Re:uhm..

[Flashbck]

I know this might sound silly, but here's a really simple answer for you:

LOOK AT THE DATE YOU BUMBLING FOOL

What's it gonna be called?

[spamnix]

... KICBM?
or GMissile?

Beta testers are sure gonna be a hard thing to find when bugs crop up.

Re:What's it gonna be called?

[emtboy9]

No NO NO! Everyone knows its GNU/MissileDefense, not MissileDefense!

Par for the course

[cheezit]

This fits in just a little too well with some recent "Ask Slashdot" stories.

"I'm a moron. How can I be less of a moron? Should I not be a moron at all? Or should I be even more moronic?" (bitchslapping ensues, mostly by those too bored to restrain themselves)

Re:DARPA

[nycsubway]

Will your guidance system have an Arab language version? There are many people who I know of who can translate.

ITAR

[nadador]

Which is worse? To feed trolls by posting replies, or to reply to any story posted on Slashdot on April 1?

The answer to the question is of course: ITAR, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which is detailed here: http://pmdtc.org/reference.htm

"127.1 Violations.
(a) It is unlawful:
(1) To export or attempt to export
from the United States any defense article
or technical data or to furnish
any defense service for which a license
or written approval is required by this
subchapter without first obtaining the
required license or written approval
from the Office of Defense Trade Controls;"

Top 10 Open Source Defense Projects

[AtariAmarok]

10. Nuclear landmines kept warm by being packed with live penguins
9. The Gentoo Torpedo
8. *BSD WMD (this one is buried deep so you can't find it)
7. SDI SDK
6. The *real* Mozilla: a 600' tall flame-breathing Japanese monster.
5. Neutron GAIM
4. The BeoWulfowitz Cluster
3. Sun OpenWarfare project
2. The Doomsday Linux
1. Cmdr Taco

Re:lame

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like this one hits a little too close to home for the slashbots.

open source ideology being mocked ... confusion ... pain ... must jerk knee violently

Re:Not a bad thought

[zerochance]

Fool, haven't you ever listened to George Carlin? It's not about oil. It's about brown people. We just love blowing up brown people. Their having oil is just a bonus.

GTFM!

[palad1]

Open Source Missile, a la google.

Re:Excellent Question

[pegr]

No, this is just the answer to that guy in New Zealand with the DIY cruise missle! Hey, you wouldn't be that guys neighbor, would you? I'm beginning to understand now...

All I know is that if I were a kid in his neighborhood, I wouldn't be walking on his grass...

Just the opposite

[A nonymous Coward]

It will be easy to keep good beta testers, they are the ones who survive because they are so good at dodging. The trick is recruiting new beta testers, and keeping them around long enough to become good beta testers.

As your code improves, it will increasingly weed out the beta testers who are not quite good enough. The really good beta testers will improve as your code improves, and will take your improvments as just the motivation they need to keep on improving.

Your product will be ready for release when you run out of beta testers.

Re:Just the opposite

[I confirm I'm not a]

Reminds me of David Brent's [The Office, BBC] recruitment policy: bin half the CVs (resumes) - that way you only employ lucky people ;)

You're pretty much guarenteed that you'll only have lucky beta-testers at the end of the process...

Your product will be ready for release when you run out of beta testers.
On the other hand...

Re:Excellent Question

[Frymaster]

cruise missle? amateur!

the internet is knee deep in instructions on how to build and h-bomb.

Commoditize Terrorist's Tools

[keester]

I like this idea because, as it stands, the price for this type of software is artificially inflated.

Right now, terrorists' funding is being stretched quite thin because of increased costs for heroin production in Afghanistan. So, anywhere that they can cut costs, they want to. Buying guided missiles from former Soviet block nations can be quite costly, and a more cost effective solution involves cutting out the middle man and building them "in-cave."

I'm not sure about legal issues, but perhaps Syria or Lebanon or other countries would be interested in supporting you. Just watch out for those pesky CIA dudes that are trying to kill your ass.

I'm wondering what the code does...

[Scorchio]

...when the missile's about to strike :

while (1)
{
dist = GetDistToTarget();

if (dist > 1.0)
{
CheckTrajectoryAndMakeChanges();
}
else
{ // Too late for any more course changes
printf("And now, the end is near;\n");
printf("And so I face the final curtain.\n");
printf("My friend, I'll say it clear,\n");
printf("I'll state my case, of which I'm certain.\n");

printf("I've lived a life that's full.\n");
printf("I've traveled each and ev'ry highway;\n");
printf("And more, much more than this,\n");
printf("I did it my way");

while (1) { printf("y"); }
}
}

Hasn't anyone heard of satire?

[Vellmont]

I thought it was funny as hell. I guess slashdotters can't see the humour in themselves. i.e All open source projects are Good, all government restrictions on software are Bad.

My only real complaint is there are just too damn many April fools jokes on slashdot. If the majority of the stories were actually real and only a few stories were jokes it'd be much easier to put one over on everyone.

Ultimate source vs. packages challenge!

[gregwbrooks]

So, which do you trust more?

• A missle-defense RPM ("Watch out for that crucial nuke-couterstrike dependency -- the install hoses without it!"); or
• Compiling from source ("Careful with the flags when you run make... Running -WITH_WMD in a non-WMD environment could cause a kernel panic...")

What if it's REAL

[Allen Zadr]

So, I'm thinking, wouldn't it be fun to open such a project on Source Forge? Then I thought - I'll bet somebody did. (yeah, go to the link, it's there).

Re:MOD PARENT DOWN

[Anonymous Coward]

YOU KNOW YER A REDNECK WHEN .... You think "My Way" is a Willie Nelson reference

Ever heard of the Gerald Bull Supercanon project?

[ArcticCelt]

Ever heard of the "Gerald Bull Supercanon" project? If I where you I will not only be concerned about the legality of the project. By doing that kind of project you'll become an unofficial enemy of many industrial country's and that's the perfect scenario to finish like this guy. Is basic project wasn't mean, he just wanted to develop a cheap way to send payload in space but because he was helping enemy nations he got more than he bargained for. Even if he was a Canadian Citizen (I think) he wasn't out of reach of the Mossad...

Re:Excellent Question

[pegr]

cruise missle? amateur!
the internet is knee deep in instructions on how to build and h-bomb.

Dude, I'm not touching that link through ten anonymous proxy servers...