[Linux-aus] Grant request: Contribution to Senate voting source code FOI request review.

[Russell Coker]

On Mon, 23 Jun 2014 18:06:50 Michael Cordover wrote:
> Importantly, even if this material is released it still will not be "open
> source" in the relevant sense. People will have a right to see it but not
> to use it, create derivative versions etc. Copyright in the source code
> will still be held by the government, presumably on an "all rights
> reserved" basis.

Getting the source published seems to be an important step towards getting it 
licensed for free use by the citizens.

I recall Pia saying that CC license have some sort of default status for 
government data.  So it seems that for anything that is released we can make a 
good case for CC release.

> I also hope it will put to rest those concerns that making source code
> available can result in "security issues" for important systems. We know
> this isn't true, but it was still raised in argument against release of the
> code.

The aim of the government organisations involved with the SE Linux project is 
to replace secret-source OSs with Linux distributions (primarily RHEL).  By 
starting the project the NSA clearly indicated their opinion regarding 
"security by obscurity".

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