UK Govt Warned: Don't Buy GPL

JPMH writes "ZDNet is reporting that a UK IT industry body backed by Microsoft, IBM, Intel, BAE Systems and other high-tech heavyweights has urged the UK government not to commission open-source software, and particularly not software covered by the General Public License. According to Intellect, which lobbies for about 1,000 UK IT companies, the requirement of open-source licences for software funded by the government could have a negative impact on competition for contracts, the quality of the resulting software and even the confidentiality of government departments. In particular, Intellect recommends that the government drop the GNU General Public License (GPL), the licence upon which the GNU/Linux operating system is based, from its list of acceptable default licences for government-funded software, and steer clear of the GPL generally."

Comments

Hmm..

[The J Kid]

The group of names mentioned, (MS, Bea, and IBM) are probably not themselves lobbying, but a GB-lobby group...

So don't go trashing IBM for this, as I'm sure that being part of this GB-lobby group has some other advantages which do 'profit' open source products (from IBM, or otherwise).

But that all aside, this is a pretty silly situation, as other parts of the UK goverment have endorced Open Source software.

But hey, this article only states that the lobby group has lobbied against, but that isn't very dramatic is it?

This is bad

[CausticWindow]

The UK's position as a world leader will be severly impacted by following advice like this.

And this in turn means that the french terrorist apologists probably would be strengthened. Therefore it's a really bad thing.

This should be interesting

[TyrranzzX]

Is the UK goverment going to go for the idea of profitability and greed, or are they going to go for the idea that one doesn't need money in a system where people do things because they like to? The entertaining part is that the GPL twists the idea of capitalism thoroughly; why should I go with something I have to pay for when something else is free and superior? So they pick the free and some people are out jobs, and in time programming becomes something people do for fun and enjoyment. As time goes on, hardware and software becomes cheaper and the control stays within that of the people and things like food, water, and shelter become readily available and free. No wonder so many corperations want this gone; they are capitalists opressing a movement that understands capitalisms faults and moves to exploit them.