On Tue, 22 Feb 2011, Johnny Hughes wrote:
I am aware, but it also is very important that we (the CentOS Project) do not change the SRPMS (or the source tar balls, or any other piece of source) for any reason except to remove trademarks and copyright info. It is the whole purpose of the CentOS Project.
The bottom line is, people can figure out how to recompile the packages just like we did ... but we don't change the sources.
No they can not. The bottom line is, people can try to reverse engineer the process CentOS is using, but they may never be sure it's like what CentOS did. So your statement is incorrect.
Hence my joke that the 'C' in CentOS actually means Closed.
That said, if CentOS wants it this way they sure have every right to do it like this. But it would be nice to state that upfront.