non-disclosure of infrastructure problem a management issue?

[Anders Karlsson]

* Frank Cox <theatre at sasktel.net> [20080824 23:11]:
> On Sun, 24 Aug 2008 13:19:03 -0700
> Bruce Byfield <bbyfield at axion.net> wrote:
> 
> > On Sun, 2008-08-24 at 13:41 -0600, Frank Cox wrote:
> > > On Sun, 24 Aug 2008 11:27:47 -0800
> > > Jeff Spaleta <jspaleta at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > 
> > > >  the full details
> > > > can not be publicly disclosed instantaneously due to legal constraint
> > > 
> > > This I simply don't understand.
> > 
> > Anybody who has had extensive dealings with lawyers knows that they tend
> > to err on the side of caution at any time. When a publicly traded
> > company is involved, that's even more true.
> 
> In this case, I think "err" is an appropriate word.

If you are suggesting "err" as in fail, you're the one failing IMHO.

> > Whether Red Hat and Fedora could have acted differently is a debatable
> > point.
> 
> And we're debating it.

Flogging a dead horse is more like it.

> > But that Red Hat acted as it did is not surprising. Just because
> > a corporation is open source, it doesn't stop being a corporation.
> 
> But when a corporation claims to be host to a "community", they need to be
> called on the carpet by that community when they fail to act appropriately.
> Ultimately, of course, there isn't much the so-called community  or its
> members can do other than either abandon the corporation and go its (their, or
> his) own way, but less drastic action like a public ass-kicking can sometimes
> have a beneficial effect too.

Please define "act appropriately". I think you'll be hard pushed to
find *real* lawyers (instead of the IANAL variant that seems to be
thirteen to the dozen around here) claiming that Red Hat has acted
inappropriately in this instance.

If you however by "appropriately" mean - "before we know anything,
we'll trample all over evidence, disclose anything and everything,
totally sabotaging any forensic and/or criminal investigation", then I
guess you may be right.


When disclosure does happen, I'll be delighted to see a similar public
arse-kicking of the ones that were all for breaking process (legal or
sensible).

/Anders