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List:       prelude-announce
Subject:    [Prelude-announce] Access to Prelude development versions are
From:       yoann () prelude-ids ! org (Yoann Vandoorselaere)
Date:       2005-01-09 17:00:20
Message-ID: 1105286657.25003.111.camel () arwen ! prelude-ids ! org
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[french version at the bottom of this mail]


Dear Prelude users and Open source community members,

You probably noticed that access to the Prelude development version was
suspended towards the end of December.

The Prelude team feels that it owes you an explanation for the access
restriction and the events justifying this (provisional) closure.

The Prelude team has worked for 3 or 4 years straight to provide the
functionality present in the current Prelude IDS to the company
Exaprotect (formerly Exaprobe). This work has made it possible for
Exaprotect to adapt the Prelude Intrusion Detection System to the needs
of its customers.

The Prelude Hybrid IDS software, under the GPL licence, has served as
the "framework" (according to their own term) for the Exaprotect IDS
developed in Java. The current Exaprotect IDS was, in the beginning,
only a simple derivative of Prelude.

During October, Exaprotect and the Prelude team finally reached an
agreement satisfying both organisations' needs. By hiring a member of
the Prelude team, Exaprotect could obtain functionality specific to its
requirements and the Prelude team could offer a salary to a developer,
who otherwise would not have been able to continue to work on Prelude
due to lack of money.

The agreement initially outlined a 3 month contract and a road-map which
detailed the various technical goals set by Exaprotect. If the goals
were met according to the schedule it was agreed that a further 3 month
contract would be drawn up.

However, to the surprise of the Prelude developers (and despite the fact
that all the technical goals had been met) on Tuesday December 21, in
the third month of the first contract, the Exaprotect company broke its
end of the agreement and announced that it would not renew the contract
as promised. The Prelude team was thus forced to announce to the Prelude
developer, at Christmas time, that he would be left without employment
from mid-January.

The Prelude team had kept to its contractual commitments and the
totality of the technical goals were met and the results provided ahead
of schedule and made available via the Prelude SVN repository.

The Prelude project has worked with Exaprotect for years and yet inside
three months of paying a developer Exaprotect have decided that the
Prelude team have an unsatisfactory attitude.

To justify its unforeseen breach of contract Exaprotect argues that the
terms of the agreement did not relate solely to the end result (the
technical goals being met on schedule) but extended to the "creation of
a satisfactory exchange place between the Prelude and Exaprotect team".

It is evident that the exchange interface with the Prelude project
seemed satisfactory to Exaprotect only as a long as it remained one-way
and free.

The Exaprotect company repeats endlessly and restlessly its goodwill and
desire to support Open source projects what ever they are. However, they
have never made a significant contribution to the Prelude source code
(the only copyright held by Exaprotect / Exaprobe refers to LML
signatures), and now in dropping their commitments they have put a
Prelude developer on the street and the Prelude project in a very
difficult situation with no real solution.

After the breach, the Prelude team could see only a few solutions:

- To temporarily close the SVN repository to protect Prelude source
code.

- To consider prohibiting Exaprotect/Exaprobe's further use of Prelude
according to section 4 of the GPL license.

Please bear with us while we try to sort this out.

We apologize for any inconvenience these events have caused you and
thank you for the attention you pay to the Prelude project and for your
support.


***
*** French version
***


Chers utilisateurs Prelude et membres de la communaut? open source, 

Il n'a pu vous ?chapper qu'? la fin du mois de d?cembre les acc?s ? la
version en d?veloppement de Prelude avaient ?t? suspendus. 

Nous nous devons aujourd'hui de vous apporter des explications quant aux
?v?nements qui ont motiv?s cette fermeture (provisoire). 

L'?quipe Prelude n'a pas m?nag? sa peine pour fournir gratuitement, sans
interruption, pendant 3 ans des fonctionnalit?s ? l'entreprise Exaprobe
puis Exaprotect. 

Cet apport incessant de travail et de valeur a permis ? cette entit?
d'adapter l'IDS Prelude aux besoins de ses clients.

Le logiciel Prelude-IDS, sous licence GPL, aura ainsi servi de
"chassis", selon leur propre terme, ? l'IDS Exaprotect d?velopp? en
Java. 

Autant dire que Prelude formait non seulement l'?pine dorsale de l'IDS
Exaprotect mais aussi que celui-ci n'?tait, ? l'origine, qu'un simple
d?riv? de Prelude.

Au mois d'octobre dernier, l'entreprise Exaprotect et l'?quipe Prelude
ont enfin pu conclure un accord satisfaisant les besoins des deux
parties. En embauchant un programmeur Prelude, l'entreprise Exaprotect
pouvait obtenir des fonctionnalit?s sp?cifiques ? ses besoins et
l'?quipe Prelude pouvait apporter une r?mun?ration ? un d?veloppeur dont
les ressources ne lui permettaient plus de continuer ses travaux sur son
temps libre. 

L'accord portait en premier lieu sur une roadmap de 3 mois o? ?taient
d?taill?s les diff?rents points techniques ? d?velopper et qui, s'ils
?taient r?alis?s ? temps, devaient mener ? une seconde roadmap de 3
mois 

Or, contre toute attente et alors m?me que les engagements de Prelude
?taient respect?s et donnaient pleine satisfaction ? l'autre partie, Le
mardi 21 d?cembre, dans le courant du troisi?me mois de la premi?re
roadmap, l'entreprise Exaprotect a rompu ses engagements et a annonc?
qu'elle ne renouvellerait pas le contrat du d?veloppeur pour les 3
prochains mois. L'?quipe Prelude a donc ?t? contrainte d'annoncer ? ce
programmeur Prelude, au moment des f?tes de fin d'ann?e, qu'il se
retrouverait malheureusement sans emploi ? la mi-janvier. 

L'?quipe Prelude avait pourtant bel et bien tenu ses engagements et la
totalit? des d?veloppements pr?vus dans la roadmap se trouvait, avant
m?me la fin des 3 premiers mois, sur le SVN de Prelude. 

Pour motiver sa volte-face impr?vue, Exaprotect n'h?site pas ? invoquer
des arguments de derni?re minute aux termes desquels l'accord,
finalement, ne portait plus uniquement sur le r?sultat et les d?lais
d'obtention des fonctionnalit?s mais s'?tendait ? "la cr?ation d'un
espace d'?change satisfaisant entre l'?quipe Prelude et Exaprotect". 

Il va sans dire que l'interface d'?change avec Prelude n'a sembl?
satisfaisante ? Exaprotect qu'aussi longtemps qu'elle est demeur?e
unilat?rale et gratuite.  Il aura ainsi suffi ? Exaprotect de verser
trois mois de salaire ? un programmeur Prelude (en t?l?travail) pour
faire volte-face et s'aviser qu'elle ne s'accomodait plus de l'attitude
de l'?quipe Prelude... 

L'entreprise Exaprotect r?p?te inlassablement et ? l'envi sa bonne
volont? et son d?sir de soutenir les projets open source quels qu'ils
soient. Pourtant, elle n'a jamais apport? de contribution significative
au code source de Prelude (le seul copyright d?tenu par Exaprotect /
Exaprobe se rapporte ? des signatures lml), et, en se d?robant ? ses
engagements au milieu du gu?, elle sait qu'elle met un d?veloppeur ? la
rue et le projet Prelude face au mur. 

Dans ce contexte, il ne nous restait que peu de solutions : 

- Fermer provisoirement le SVN pour prot?ger le code source de Prelude 

- Envisager d'interdire ? Exaprotect / Exaprobe l'utilisation future de
Prelude selon la section 4 de la GPL.


Nous vous prions de nous excuser pour le d?sagr?ment engendr? par ces
?v?nements. 
Nous vous remercions pour l'attention que vous portez au projet Prelude
et pour votre soutien.

-- 
Yoann Vandoorselaere <yoann@prelude-ids.org>

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