[conspire] Fwd: [gmane.linux.yellowdog.general] Re: [OT] FLOSS and government - is OSS the only reasonable software for a democratic government

[Daniel Gimpelevich]

I caught this on the Yellow Dog Linux mailing list (accessed via NNTP),
and thought it might be of interest here.

On Sun, 06 Mar 2005 13:51:57 -0800, Anthony Lanni wrote:

> I recently read an article in WIRED regarding free music trading in
> Brazil; it also mentioned that the Brazilian government was
> aggressively switching over to Linux.
> Wired, November 1994, "We Pledge Allegience to the Penguin..." 
> pps 190-197
> 
> Much of the article focuses on Brazil's cultural tendency toward
> sharing - files, technology, products, etc - as a basis for their turn
> away from corporate and political ownership.  Perhaps that same
> culture bleeds into other South American countries.  Q/C/E?
> 
> thx
>         anthony
> 
> On Sun, 6 Mar 2005 10:41:42 -0500, Eric Dunbar <eric.dunbar at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Since it's OT I suggest that any discussion (on Ubuntu lists anyway)
>> go on in "sounder".
>> 
>> I found an interesting (but older) exchange between a Peruvian
>> Congressman and a GM for Microsoft regarding Peru's attempt at
>> creating an OSS law. I don't know whether Peru adopted it or not, but
>> the points raised are extremely interesting -- there's a compelling
>> argument to be made (most of us Linux users already know this but it's
>> not usually articulated this clearly) that an elected government can
>> ONLY use OSS and stay true.
>> 
>> http://www.opensource.org/docs/msFUD_to_peru.php
>> http://www.opensource.org/docs/peru_and_ms.php
>> 
>> FYI this is my favourite tid bit:
>> 
>> You end with a rhetorical question: "13. If open source software
>> satisfies all the requirements of State bodies, why do you need a law
>> to adopt it? Shouldn't it be the market which decides freely which
>> products give most benefits or value?"
>> 
>> We agree that in the private sector of the economy, it must be the
>> market that decides which products to use, and no state interference
>> is permissible there. However, in the case of the public sector, the
>> reasoning is not the same: as we have already established, the state
>> archives, handles, and transmits information which does not belong to
>> it, but which is entrusted to it by citizens, who have no alternative
>> under the rule of law. As a counterpart to this legal requirement, the
>> State must take extreme measures to safeguard the integrity,
>> confidentiality, and accessibility of this information. The use of
>> proprietary software raises serious doubts as to whether these
>> requirements can be fulfilled, lacks conclusive evidence in this
>> respect, and so is not suitable for use in the public sector.
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