Dean Michael Berris wrote:
> > The commercial reps misunderstand (or misrepresent) FOSS as a technology. It
> > is not. ...
> IIRC FOSS means Free and Open Source Software. If the software
> part isn't clear, I don't know what you mean...
This is not about software technology, this is about software procurement
policy.
The two are not the same. Consider the procurement of military equipment.
The goverment might have some technological criteria (such as compatibility
with existing equipment), but those are secondary. The primary criteria are
about independence and democracy. If a manufacturer was selling arms but
told governments "You can only fire this at countries that we designate", a
good government would reject that technical equipment, and the rejection
wouldn't be about technology.
For software, there can also be technical criteria in procurement policy,
but first the government should fulfil it's democratic duties.
What are the democratic duties of a government regarding software? IMO,
governments should say:
We will only accept software if we are free to:
1. Use it in any way we choose for any purpose we choose, so the software
cannot restrict our ability to govern according to current and future
law.
2. Look at the source code to see everything that it is doing.
3. Change it in any way that we choose (by modifying the source code) such
as to adapt to changes in law or to improve efficiency.
4. Give copies of the software that we use, including source code, to the
public on whose behalf we govern, if we choose, so that they can verify
our compliance with the law of the country.
The software that fits these criteria is free software, but those criteria
are about democracy, not about technology.
--
Ciarán O'Riordan __________________ \ http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3
http://ciaran.compsoc.com/ _________ \ GPLv3 and other work supported by
http://fsfe.org/fellows/ciaran/weblog \ Fellowship: http://www.fsfe.org
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