More 'Dark Forces vs OpenSrc' [ACM technews snippet]

[Steve Jenkin]

More from the 'Dark Forces'....

Summary:	http://www.acm.org/technews/articles/2002-4/1025f.html#item4
Reference:	http://www.wired.com/news/linux/0,1411,55989,00.html 

"Letter: Free Software Hurts U.S."
       Wired News (10/25/02); McMillan, Robert 

       Reps. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Ron Kind (D-Wis.), and Jim Davis
(D-Fla.)
       urged 74 Democrats in Congress to support a letter that Reps. Tom
Davis
       (R-Va.) and Jim Turner (D-Texas) sent to White House
cybersecurity advisor
       Richard Clarke, suggesting that his national cybersecurity policy
reject
       "licenses that would prevent or discourage commercial adoption of
       promising cybersecurity technologies developed through federal
R&D." The
       three supporters argue that this letter demonstrates that Linux's
GNU
       General Public License (GPL) threatens the "innovation and
security" of the
       United States, and they urge Clarke not to include it in his
cybersecurity
       plan. However, Davis and Turner deny that their letter addresses
open
       source or the GPL. Smith has drawn criticism for the huge
contributions he
       has received from Microsoft, and although his spokesperson
Katherine Lister
       says that Microsoft does not influence his policies, Free
Software
       Foundation director Bradley Kuhn counters that his rhetoric is a
virtual
       mirror of Microsoft's anti-GPL stance. Clarke's draft plan only
mentions Linux
       in its recommendation that users of the operating system update
it
       regularly. Open-source boosters say that this incident is only a
preliminary
       bout in the debate over open-source and GPL software's role in
the federal
       government. Computer security expert Gene Spafford notes that
getting
       companies to use technology developed by the federal government
will
       involve Congress looking outside the free software license. "Why
don't we
       also reject any software patents and copyrights that could
discourage the
       adoption and use of software developed under federal funds?" he
inquires.
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Steve Jenkin, Unix Sys Admin
PO Box 48, Kippax, ACT 2615
0412 786 915