ssh1 and commercial use

[mikebw at colossus.bilow.com (Mike Bilow)]

There is a very convoluted history to this.  Originally, ssh was free for
all use and had open source code.  At some point, the author changed the
license to make it non-free for commercial use.  This led to several
parallel efforts to fork the tree from the last original free release.  
The OpenBSD folks seems to have made the most progress on a free version,
and have displayed a sensitivity to the three major problems (the license
terms, ths US export laws, and the US RSA patent).  See:

	http://www.openbsd.com/
	http://www.freessh.org/

As for new stuff, the OpenBSD version has had ssh v2 support for about a
month.  Linux ports should follow on fairly quickly.  Personally, I regard
the original author's imposition of increasingly restrictive license
conditions (such as prohibiting ports to DOS and Windows) as bizarre, and
the consensus is that the OpenBSD-originated version is de facto standard.

-- Mike


On 2000-05-31 at 10:19 -0500, Jack Coats wrote:

> I have the same concerns.  I contacted ssh.com and a end user license is
> basically $89 or so.  Discounts for quantity, and some options cost more.
> Check out their web site and their sales folks are understanding and don't
> call the software cops on you for asking.  For that price you get the 'new
> stuff'.
> 
> ... JC
> 
> On Wed, 31 May 2000, Scott Ehrlich wrote:
> 
> > Hello to all:
> > 
> > The company I work for utilizes Linux boxes (Slackware) with ssh-1.2.27
> > from ftp.cs.hut.fi/pub/ssh.  The ssh README says it can be used freely for
> > non-commercial purposes, but doesn't say where to send money or anything
> > further.  As a co-Sys Admin at the company, I want to keep us legal.  Any
> > help on this clarification would be appreciated.
> > 
> > Thanks.
> > 
> > Scott


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