I would suggest that going to work for "the/this government", even on a contract basis, may and probably has all sorts of implications including perhaps a majority of which and the most concerning are not actually spelled out in the direct contract, itself.
Just trying to evaluate what those might include could be a very extensive and unachievable exercise.
I can imagine someone in a position like that of the TrueCrypt developers being loathe to enter into a scenario bringing with it such ramifications. Even setting aside any personal ideology, it has the appearance of a swamp in need of the obligatory sign, "Here Be Dragons".
Just my blue sky speculation, but based upon a number of years of casual and outside observation of facts and anecdotes that make it into the sphere of public knowledge.
But there was no 'come work for us' implied or explicit, of that I'm sure.
This was small to medium-sized Australian government agency, knowingly talking to people we (assume) were based in either Europe or the USA, either way off-shore.
We didn't even have a tentative contract to hand, and as I say I can't remember the details, but I suspect our opening inquiry was along the lines of 'has anyone else talked to you about this type of deal', leading into a 'we'd just like something on paper that will satisfy management that we've done due diligence'. Our expectation was that it would effectively be a donation to the project.
Clearly there was, for us, back then, no perceived risk at all TrueCrypt was about to be abandoned - and the project's response to fixing bugs far exceeded any non-free / proprietary software we were concurrently deploying.
Thanks for the clarification. Although I still think a person in a position such as that of the TrueCrypt developers might be reluctant to take anything from a government or provide them any sort of... statement.
Just trying to evaluate what those might include could be a very extensive and unachievable exercise.
I can imagine someone in a position like that of the TrueCrypt developers being loathe to enter into a scenario bringing with it such ramifications. Even setting aside any personal ideology, it has the appearance of a swamp in need of the obligatory sign, "Here Be Dragons".
Just my blue sky speculation, but based upon a number of years of casual and outside observation of facts and anecdotes that make it into the sphere of public knowledge.