[OT] FLOSS and government - is OSS the only reasonable software for a democratic government

[Anthony Lanni]

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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