MESSAGE
| DATE | 2002-02-15 |
| FROM | Seth Johnson
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Governments Push Open-Source Software
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http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-202-6996393.html
Governments push open-source software
By Paul Festa
August 29, 2001
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-6996393.html?tag=prntfr
Governments around the world have found a new rallying
cry--"Software libre!"--and Microsoft is working overtime to
quell it.
A recent global wave of legislation is compelling government
agencies, and in some cases government-owned companies, to
use open-source or free software unless proprietary software
is the only feasible option.
This legal movement, earliest and most pronounced in Brazil,
but also showing signs of catching on elsewhere in Latin
America, Europe and Asia, is finding ready converts as
governments struggle to close sometimes vast digital divides
with limited information-technology budgets. So far, there
is no evidence that similar legislation is being considered
anywhere in the United States, experts said.
Open-source and free software represent a budget-priced
alternative to Microsoft's Windows operating system and
applications that can cost thousands of dollars a month to
license. In addition, access to underlying source code means
governments and businesses can fix problems or modify
software to work more effectively.
But behind the obvious reasons for the move to open-source
and free software are more subtle issues. One of the
overriding drivers behind legislation, experts said, appears
to be a desire to break free of the United States' lock on
the global software market.
Laws requiring the use of free or open-source software give
governments "free rein to do what they want, how they want
and when they want it," said IDC analyst Dan Kusnetzky.
"It's not just the United States government they're worried
about but a single vendor exercising so much power over
their government operations. A government would not like to
be under so much influence from any supplier."
In Europe, where numerous bills and resolutions have been
introduced, local, state and federal governments spent $7.8
billion on software in 2000. In Brazil, governments spent a
mere $200 million the same year, an indication of how little
the country has to spend on software and why free or
low-priced software holds such powerful appeal.
Proponents of the legislation use the term "software libre"
to describe software that is not only free of licensing fees
but whose development is not controlled by a single company.
Theoretically, that single company could be any one of a
number of software providers. In reality, most of the
legislation in Europe, Asia and Latin America is
specifically targeted at gaining freedom from Microsoft and
its perceived lock on the commercial software business.
In a motion passed by the city government of Florence,
Italy, in June, legislators warned that continued use of
proprietary software was leading to "the computer science
subjection of the Italian state to Microsoft."
Microsoft has matched or exceeded this level of rhetoric
with its comments on open-source software, characterizing it
variously as "a cancer," "an intellectual property
destroyer" and--appropriately enough in the context of the
global wave of open-source-only law--"un-American."
In response to the new laws, Microsoft summoned arguments
similar to those it has made in its protracted antitrust
fight with the U.S. government.
"Regarding this specific (legal) trend, we don't believe
that governments should pick winners and losers," said
Microsoft spokesman Ricardo Adame. "Technology should
compete on its merits in a free market. Let the government
look at all the options and then make a decision, so they
can say, 'We may have to pay for this software, but it's the
best solution for our specific needs.'"
Since the laws are so new, and so few have actually passed,
it's unclear what financial effect they might have on
Microsoft. The company sold more than $5 billion worth of
software in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and more than
$2.5 billion worth of products in Asia during fiscal 2001.
Microsoft does not break out Latin American sales.
But the trend could be troubling to the software giant,
which has eyed the proliferation of open-source software
nervously. Microsoft isn't taking the new legal assault
sitting down. Adame said that through regional trade
associations, the company had lobbied the Brazilian
government against adopting laws mandating open source.
"We want to participate in any discussions on industry
policy all over the world," said Adame. "We are aware of
initiatives in Brazil and have expressed our concerns to
different government officials. We're supporting the
position that the decision by government to acquire
technology should be based on the benefits and value of that
technology and not on limiting those possibilities."
Governments--especially those of poorer nations with less
money to spend on information technology--are eager to reap
the cost savings of using free software.
But the rhetoric behind the movement to enact these laws is
at times ideological and nationalistic, with legislators
urging their colleagues to avoid dependence on software
whose export is legally controlled by the United States and
whose development and licensing is controlled by this
country's dominant software industry.
"Many administrations are still using communication
standards tightly linked to a single private provider, which
forces citizens and public organizations to become customers
of the same provider and, in the end, significantly
stimulates abuses of dominant position in the market," reads
the preamble to one French bill under consideration.
"Public administrations of the state often use software
which they cannot access the source code; this situation
makes it impossible to fix bugs that the software publisher
refuses to fix or to check that there is no security trap in
strategic software," the preamble continues. "Public
administrations sometimes use, without even being aware of
it, software which communicates sensitive private
information to foreign companies or organizations."
Open-source software packages allow organizations to examine
the underlying code and, in some cases, change that code to
fix a problem or modify it to run with other software. The
source code for Microsoft's products is closely guarded and
unavailable to most customers. The company does allow its
largest customers to access source code under a program
called "shared source."
Beyond the issue of source-code access, analysts say,
concerns about autonomy and national security are likely to
drive passage of more laws discouraging use of proprietary
software.
A number of countries have also used legislation to promote
indigenous technology industries, such as PC makers. Brazil
and China place heavy export duties on technology products,
which effectively forces U.S. companies to build local
facilities and employ large portions of the population.
Countries in Africa also have used software export laws to
help encourage local providers.
Where it all started The cradle of the new wave of laws
mandating free software appears to be Brazil, where four
cities--Amparo, Solonopole, Ribeirao Pires and Recife--have
passed laws giving preference to or requiring the use of
"software libre." Other municipalities, states and the
national government have mulled similar legislation.
Brazil has proved fertile ground for open-source laws, and
free software advocates say that other developing nations
will likely follow its lead.
"This is a political and ethical issue, just like freedom of
the press or freedom of association," said Richard Stallman,
founder and president of the Free Software Foundation, who
this year addressed the Brazilian Congress on the subject.
"It makes sense, especially for countries like Brazil that
are not rich, to encourage the country to switch from
proprietary software to free software.
"In addition to giving people freedoms, software has a
secondary benefit because people can use this freedom to
save a lot of money now draining away to a few rich
foreigners."
Elsewhere around the globe, Florence in June passed a motion
mandating the use of "software libero" when feasible. A
handful of smaller Italian municipalities, including Pavia,
have passed similar motions.
The Florentine motion's author, a member of the local Green
Party, is now drafting a measure to be introduced by his
colleagues in the national parliament.
In France, the Senate last year considered a proposal
requiring the government to use only free, open-source
software and to establish a bureau of free software
overseeing the measure's implementation. Described as an
attention-getting scheme more than as a plausible bill, the
proposal and its revision were defeated.
However, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin last week
handed down a decree creating the Agency for Technologies of
Information and Communication in Administration (ATICA), one
of whose missions is "to encourage administrations to use
free software and open standards."
Opportunity for software sellers Despite the anti-U.S. bent
behind much of the recent legislation, the legal trend
against proprietary software hasn't left U.S. companies
entirely in the cold. Instead, companies that have embraced
open-source software are capitalizing on the foreign
appetite for such software.
IBM, for example, recently invested $200 million in its
Linux ventures in Asia. And other companies are viewing the
open-source legislative push as a positive development for
their own open-source efforts.
"We're noticing a lot of countries looking at free and open
software as an alternative and mandating its use in certain
situations," said Danese Cooper, whose informal title at Sun
Microsystems is "open-source diva" and who is manager of its
open-source programs office. "It's very exciting because any
time you have respectable entities like governments saying
they want to look seriously at a certain kind of code, that
supports a movement and gives it legitimacy."
Based on the Sun-sponsored OpenOffice project, Sun's
StarOffice is intended to compete with Microsoft's Office
software.
Cooper speculated that countries with strong socialist
histories or political movements are more likely to embrace
open-source or free software, whether by force of law or by
less-sweeping means.
Some analysts caution that the idealistic goals of the
software libre movement are worthy but likely to meet with
frustration in the government sector, at least in the short
term.
"The use of free software is a noble idea, but government
agencies typically do not have the technology modernization
nor the technical expertise to ensure rapid adoption," said
Rishi Sood, an analyst with Gartner. "Government agencies
certainly need to develop more open-based technology systems
and are looking for ways to improve data sharing across the
enterprise."
The political rhetoric surrounding the debate over
open-source law supports that speculation, with ideological
passions and concerns over privacy, open standards and
globalism driving much of the legislative efforts.
"Economic models of the software industry and the
telecommunications industry...tend to induce strategies of
incompatibility, industrial secrets, programmed obsolescence
and violation of individual liberties," reads the preamble
to the defeated French bill.
Activists and programmers, while they welcome the
free-software-only initiatives, say they're holding out for
more sweeping legal protections for their work.
"These laws are not the kind of help we most ask for from
governments," said Stallman. "What we ask is that they not
interfere with us with things like the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act, with software patents, with prohibitions on
reverse engineering that enable companies like Microsoft to
make proprietary data formats and prohibit our work. Those
are the main obstacles to satisfying the software needs of
humanity."
News.com's Michael Kanellos contributed to this report.
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