Distribution of binary

[NIIBE Yutaka]

Peter Lebbing <peter at digitalbrains.com> wrote:
> TL;DR: Is it okay to give people gnuk-no-vidpid.elf along with the
> script to insert a VID:PID?

As long as it's an experimental use (it's not commercial product) with
the condition of:

    * Distribution here means delivery of a limited number of hardware
      by hand (in person)

    * Both sides have enough knowledge, and agree it's an experiment

    * Both sides actually have official Gnuk Token already

Then, I'd say, it's OK even with 234b:0000.

Please note that it's my personal opinion.  This is not something like
an official resolution at FSIJ annual meeting.

What I ask clearly is not to distribute binary of gnuk.elf which
contains VID:PID of FSIJ, by a media (like CD-ROM, SD card, etc.) or on
network.


If done for commercial product, I think that both cases (distributing a
hardware with 0000:0000, distributing a hardware with 234b:0000) anyway
violate the assumption of USB governance.  In the (ideal) USB world, it
assumes it is only done by the vendor.

If done for personal experiment, nothing could stop that, I suppose.

For distribution of experimental hardware among friends, in general,
it's better not to do that using someone's vendor ID (as a good citizen,
not to confuse the world).

For this particular case of experimental Gnuk Token, as long as it is
recognized as an experiment and both have official Gnuk Token (which
means no possible misunderstanding), it's OK.  This is my opinion.



>From here, we have other technical discussion...

For users to experiment "out of box", obviously 234b:0000 is better,
because there are situations like:

> GnuPG was less willing to work with such a GnuK; it reports:
> > ccid-driver: usb_open failed: LIBUSB_ERROR_IO

This is because of configuration.  In Debian, for example, it is the
distribution which arranges udev rules to access the hardware.  It is
basically configured based on VID:PID, because each hardware behaves
differently (unfortunately).  It could use USB interface class ID
(bInterfaceClass), in theory, when each hardware hehaves well.
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