[Discussioni] newsscan

[Francesco Potorti`]

OPEN-SOURCE ACTIVISTS SAY: GIVE US LIBERTY FROM MICROSOFT
A group of just 30 of the 15,000 Linux World conference attendees in San 
Francisco staged a rally outside City Hall to urge politicians to adopt the 
Digital Software Security Act, which would require California state 
agencies to use open-source software such as Linux as an alternative to 
Microsoft Windows. A leader of the group proclaimed, "Government and 
monopolists want to take away our right to write software and use computers 
as we want to use them. Open source is the true spirit of democracy, and we 
must preserve it." The Computing Technology Industry Association, a 
Washington, D.C.-based industry trade group, charged that the proposed 
Digital Software Security Act -- which is supported by an array of hackers, 
civil libertarians, and critics of Microsoft -- would stifle innovation in 
corporate America and have unintended adverse consequences. (AP/New York 
Times 15 Aug 2002)