ADTI Whitepaper Released

Dave Wreski Writes: "This PDF article, written by Kenneth Brown of ADTI, attempts to explain that "Open source GPL use by government agencies could easily become a nation security concern. Government use of software in the public domain is exceptionally risky." The paper has been taken down since this reader submitted the link -- they promise to replace it by the end of the day -- but as of right now, it's still available here. Their accompanying press release is out too. You might remember that we ran a story on this whitepaper earlier. At the time, a CNET story said that it was going to link open-source to terrorism; it does so in a glancing reference on p. 8 to the FAA and "national security." But the thrust of the paper is "GPL bad, open-source good," coincidentally Microsoft's position, as was hinted-at in NewsForge's interview last week. In case they take the second copy of the paper down, we'll include some teaser quotes for you below. Update by HeUnique:The Register got some nice critique about this paper.

"Another security concern is that the primary distribution channel for GPL open source is the Internet. As opposed to proprietary vendors, open source is freely downloaded. However, software in the public domain could contain a critical problem, a backdoor or worse, a dangerous virus."

Reverse engineering "harbors very close to IP infringement because and has staggering economic implications." [sic]

"On a lighter note, while many open source enthusiasts are proponents for copyleft, they insist on trademark protection for their ideas."

"If a software application representing 5000 hours uses GPL code that reflects only 100 hours, is the GPL fair in its argument that the entire product is GPL? This point is of considerable concern to software companies that value their secrets, design and architecture strategies. Proponents of the GPL argue that each party in the exchange is benefiting equally, but without a means to properly make this evaluation, this position at best is over-assuming."

"The federal government's information systems requirements intersect countless sensitive operations. The limitless potential for holes and back doors in an open source product would require unyielding scrutiny by staff that decided to use it. For example, if the Federal Aviation Agency were to develop an application (derived from open source) which controlled 747 flight patterns, a number of issues easily become national security questions such as: Would it be prudent for the FAA to use software that thousands of unknown programmers have intimate knowledge of for something this critical? Could the FAA take the chance that these unknown programmers have not shared the source code accidentally with the wrong parties? Would the FAA's decision to use software in the public domain invite computer 'hackers' more readily than proprietary products?"

Comments

I was wating for this to come out!

[thedanceman]

This is way too exciting for me.

Kickin' It Ole School

[Anonymous Coward]

Plekhanov wrote a special pamphlet on the relation of anarchism to Socialism, entitled Anarchism and Socialism and published in German in 1894.

In treating this subject Plekhanov contrived completely to ignore the most urgent, burning, and politically most essential issue in the struggle against anarchism, viz., the relation of the revolution to the state, and the question of the state in general! Two sections of his pamphlet stand out: one of them is historical and literary, and contains valuable material on the history of the ideas of Stirner, Proudhon and others; the other is philistine, and contains a clumsy dissertation on the theme that an anarchist cannot be distinguished from a bandit.

A most amusing combination of subjects and most characteristic of Plekhanov's whole activity on the eve of the revolution and during the revolutionary period in Russia. Indeed, in the years 1905 to 1917, Plekhanov revealed himself as a semi-doctrinaire and semi-philistine who, in politics, trailed in the wake of the bourgeoisie.

We have seen how, in their controversy with the anarchists, Marx and Engels with the utmost thoroughness explained their views on the relation of revolution to the state. In 1891, in his foreword to Marx's Critique of the Gotha Program, Engels wrote that "we"--that is, Engels and Marx--"were at that time, hardly two years after the Hague Congress of the (First) International, engaged in the most violent struggle against Bakunin and his anarchists."

The anarchists had tried to claim the Paris Commune as their "own," so to say, as a corroboration of their doctrine; and they utterly failed to understand its lessons and Marx's analysis of these lessons. Anarchism has failed to give anything even approximating a true solution of the concrete political problems, viz., must the old state machine be smashed? And what should be put in its place?

But to speak of "Anarchism and Socialism" while completely evading the question of the state, and failing to take note of the whole development of Marxism before and after the Commune, meant inevitably slipping into opportunism. For what opportunism needs most of all is that the two questions just mentioned should not be raised at all. That in itself is a victory for opportunism.

[OT] your "department" tagline...

[Anomolous Cow Herd]

from the this-story-edited-in-mozilla-on-mac-os-x dept.

That's funny, it kinda looks like you're using Internet Explorer here.

Sig.

[bleckywelcky]

I watched you dance for about 30 seconds... and it scared me.