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Open Source in Oregon

Posted by michael on from the smoke-filled-room dept.

Anonymous writes "MWVLUG's coordinator, Cooper Stevenson, has asked Linux Today to post this detailed history of events surrounding the battle to get open source software legislation enacted in the Beaver State in an effort to raise public awareness for the campaign."

5 of 125 comments (clear)

  1. Justifying costs isn't strange, is it? by tage · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What's so srtange about having to justify paying for something, it being software or something else? I know I would like expenses paid for by my tax money to be justified.

    Support costs will be added no matter what. Why not justify the extra expense of licensing?

    1. Re:Justifying costs isn't strange, is it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Why not justify the extra expense of licensing? You mean, for a four year license, before the product is dropped so the parent corp can release the next version and demand relicensing?


      It's critical to divorce your processes from another corporations need for an income stream.

  2. What a surprise... by Hittite+Creosote · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The fate of a law is once again more influenced by what lobbyists want than what is in the interests of the people.
    It may be one man, one vote, but that man is the picture of a dead president printed on green paper, and the more of them you have, the more votes you have.

  3. Wouldn't it be more effective ... by zangdesign · · Score: 4, Insightful

    to have it posted somewhere besides a site that already advocates Open Source solutions? I mean, how about local newspapers?

    It's preaching to the converted, otherwise. I don't mean to sound like a troll, but c'mon guys. /. and LT readers are pretty well in favor of it already. How about telling someone who doesn't already know?

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  4. Re:Aren't votes more important that campaign fundi by Spoing · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Don't voters care about such things? Aren't the voters ultimately the people responsible for just who's up there representing them?

    What I found most interesting was that untill the people outside of governmnet noticed that open source could help them directly they weren't interested in how it impacted the government they voted for!

    Politicians might be short sighted and highly influenced by lobyists, though it looks like the voters -- and all citizens in general -- also suffer from this.

    Who's in charge? Counting on human nature to remain the same, what would be necessary to change this?

    --
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