MS Cites National Security to Justify Closed Source

guacamolefoo writes: "It was recently reported in eWeek that "A senior Microsoft Corp. executive told a federal court last week that sharing information with competitors could damage national security and even threaten the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan. He later acknowledged that some Microsoft code was so flawed it could not be safely disclosed." (Emphasis added.) The follow up from Microsoft is even better: As a result of the flaws, Microsoft has asked the court to allow a "national security" carve-out from the requirement that any code or API's be made public. Microsoft has therefore taken the position that their code is so bad that it must kept secret to keep people from being killed by it. Windows - the Pinto of the 21st century."

Comments

Code by Microsoft

[Haiku 4 U]

can kill you, your family, and maybe your dog.

Re:Code by Microsoft

[teamhasnoi]

It IS! a threat to national security; if the terrorists in Afganistan knew how to fix it, we couldn't use an Outlook virus against them anymore.

You have the emphasis wrong.

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

He later acknowledged that some Microsoft code was so flawed it could not be safely disclosed.

Any fool knows that it is flawed to that magnitude. Only the fact that it was publically admitted by a M$ official is newsworthy.

Re:Fear the future...

[egeorge]

I was really hoping that Y2K was going to do the trick. But alas, someone got the word out too soon.