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The politics of open-source software (News.com)
This News.com article looks at the efforts
of the Initiative for Software Choice (ISC) as it attempts to ensure that
government agencies won't favor open-source over proprietary software.
"The ISC is by far the most vocal opponent of a growing trend:
Legislation that, if enacted, would all but prohibit government agencies
from purchasing proprietary software for their own use. The ISC asserts
that such legislation could jeopardize the future of the worldwide
commercial software industry."
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The politics of open-source software (News.com) Posted Jul 15, 2003 1:03 UTC (Tue) by Baylink (subscriber, #755) [Link] > The ISC asserts that such legislation could jeopardize the future of the worldwide commercial softwareindustry. Outstanding! :-) Former Supreme Court Justice Learned Hand is most famous for (besides his silly name) his observation that the law guarantees no man the right to keep making a living in any specific business. If commecial software development has been being propped up by the government, well, then, among other things they're tacitly admitting that Microsoft has been *stealing* from We The People, *in addition* to milking us dry, all so that Bill can have approximately 217 personal jet airplanes. "But blacksmiths and wagon makers will be put out of business!" Horrors... -- j
The politics of open-source software (News.com) Posted Jul 15, 2003 1:51 UTC (Tue) by sandy_pond (guest, #9734) [Link] The ISC asserts that such legislation could jeopardize the future of the worldwide commercial software industry.This is like saying that public funding of public education jeopardizes all private education or that public funding of public libraries jeopardizes all private book stores. Of course it's true that this will jeopardizes some commercial software markets, but there will always be a market for commercial software. And there is also a place for the public commons and it's in the best interest of the public good that governments are able to invest in the public commons.
The politics of open-source software (News.com) Posted Jul 15, 2003 11:09 UTC (Tue) by pointwood (subscriber, #2814) [Link] Well, the article is correct in saying that open source and proprietary software should be able to compete fairly and without restrictions. What the author of the article doesn't say though (and I bet Bruce Perens said that when he answered the questions he was asked), is that they (ISC) support "reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing", which everyone should know, isn't exactly "non-discriminatory" when it comes to open source.Bruce Perens have written an article about it here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/26616.html
The politics of open-source software (News.com) Posted Jul 15, 2003 17:50 UTC (Tue) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330) [Link] I'm OK with allowing proprietary apps to "compete fairly" for government business, as long as attempts to lock customers in with undocumented or patented file formats or protocols are disallowed to the maximum extent possible (exceptions can be made in cases where there is no other tool to get the job done, but even in such cases pressure should be brought to bear to get the formats and protocols documented). Otherwise everyone that wants to do business with the government is forced to buy the chosen proprietary application, turning claims about "choice" on their heads.
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