[Next-Generation Sequencing Book]
  • [Photo] J.W. Bizzaro • February 21, 2001
    ``The report inflamed open-source proponents when it quoted [Platforms Group Vice President Jim] Allchin as saying, `I worry if the government encourages open source, and I don't think we've done enough education of policy makers to understand the threat.'

    ``Microsoft representatives told eWEEK Tuesday that Allchin was primarily concerned about the impact of the GNU General Public License, the widely used statement of open-source terms and conditions introduced 10 years ago by the Free Software Foundation Inc.

    ``Allchin's concerns, eWEEK was told, stem from GPL paragraph (2B), which states, `You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License.'

    ``In other words, Microsoft representatives warned, `anyone who adds or innovates under the GPL agrees to make the resulting code, in its entirety, available for all to use ... [which] might constrain innovating stemming from taxpayer-funded software development.'''

    Full story at Yahoo!:
    http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/zd/20010220/tc/microsoft_clarifies_exec_s_open-source_concerns_1.html
    Original Allchin statement:
    http://news.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-4825719-RHAT.html?tag=ltnc

    Allchin's statements make you wonder if Microsoft intends to target government-funded scientific software licensed under the GPL: ``education of policy makers to understand the threat...if the government encourages...taxpayer-funded...open source...software development.'' This is scary stuff.

    The funny stuff includes this complaint by the Microsoft representatives: ``anyone who adds or innovates under the GPL....'' Who can add or innovate under Microsoft's license? NO ONE BUT MICROSOFT!!! Talk about stifling innovation.

    Reference by Slashdot.org.

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