[infowarrior] - Comments on the ADTI report released today

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 11:14:34 -0400
From: Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org>
To: rforno () infowarrior org
Subject: [infowarrior] - Comments on the ADTI report released today

A few comments regarding the just-released 31-page report on Open
Source Software from the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution.

http://www.adti.net/html_files/defense/opensource_debate.html

This thing reads like an undergraduate term paper. Very little is
spent talking about OSS and 'security' -- as their press release full
of 'terrorism' jargon hinted at last week -- rather, most of the paper
talks about the economic impact that OSS presents to the country and
software industry, intellectual property theft, innovation, legal
interpretations, etc. As a result of such FUD-inducing hysteria, it's
probably - and sadly - going to get widespread media
coverage....incidentially, the actual report is entitled "Opening the
Open Source Debate"

The report fails to acknowledge that any software has problems - and
that closed-source software (eg, Microsoft) has been plagued with such
issues. Further, it does not acknowledge that the majority of
IT-related events, incidents, and vulnerabilities making headlines in
recent years were NOT caused by OSS or GPL'd products, but from
closed-source proprietary code.

The report - especially its 7 concluding points read like a summary of
Microsoft's courtroom testimony and "freedom to innovate" spin of
recent years. Bottom line....this report says GPL bad, Closed-Source
good.

I wonder how much money Redmond paid to this group for this
fear-mongering tripe.

rick
infowarrior.org



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