MS attacking government use of "open source"

[Rivera, Angel R]

A number of reasons I can think of-including: First they tried to get
around GPL so they could use the open source but close off any
changed/"enhancements" they make from the public-so now they are gunning
for GPL.  And perhaps they are afraid that the Govt will force them as
part of the anti-trust case to make sources or sections of source
available.
SecurityFocus just had an article on why M$ should not open source their
software.

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Shewmaker [mailto:shewa at inel.gov]
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2002 10:14 AM
To: Bob Drzyzgula
Cc: beowulf at beowulf.org; linuxbios at lanl.gov
Subject: Re: MS attacking government use of "open source"


On Thu, 23 May 2002 07:12:54 -0400
Bob Drzyzgula <bob at drzyzgula.org> wrote:

> All of us using and supporting Linux in government
> probably need to be somewhat concerned about this. The
> Pentagon at least seems not to have been swayed so far,
> but it's gone far enough for them to pay Mitre for a study
> of the question. I'm not sure that all agencies would
> be this steadfast.

I find myself wanting to write letters to my representatives, etc., but 
then I think to myself that it will all work itself out.  It may work 
itself out, but perhaps my real reason for not doing something is that 
I don't feel like it will make a difference.  I'm from Idaho and this 
state appears to have little power to affect anything.  Of course, not 
doing anything is a good way of guaranteeing that I don't have any 
affect.  I plan on making my representatives aware of Peruvian 
Congressman Villanueva's bill and letter to Microsoft.
http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2002-05-20-006-26-IN-LF-PB


>    "Microsoft has argued that some free-licensing
>    regimes are antithetical to the government's
>    stated policy that moneymaking applications
>    should develop from government-funded research
>    and that intellectual property should be
>    protected."

I don't understand why many people (not just MS) are so adamantly 
opposed to the GPL.  I know that the GPL is not for everything, but 
it is really a good license for the information age.  Instead of paying 
for the right to use the software with money, a person simply pays with 
any source code modifications they make.

Andrew

-- 
Andrew Shewmaker
Associate Engineer
Phone:  208.526.1415

Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory
2525 Fremont Ave.
P.O. Box 1625, MS 3605
Idaho Falls, ID 83414-3605
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