Washington Post has a good story today.
The post reports that US Congress Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., has used tricky methods to create official correspondence saying the free software philosophy is “problematic and threaten(s) to undermine innovation and security”.
Mr Smith is from Microsoft’s home state and is known as a strong supporter of them (they pay his campaigns).
The not-so-hidden hand of Mr Smith in opening yet another attack on GPL and free software is hilarious in itself, but in fact deeply tragic.
I hate FUDs. I hate lobbying, at least when it’s done it such unethical ways, but also as a principle. I guess that’s why I’ve become a civil servant; then I don’t have to lobby. In government, we call it serving-up the minister 😉
On lobbying, Tony Stanco was quoted in the Post for saying: The weight of people who are really in the know go against this kind of stance. Well put, Tony!
Tony will come to Copenhagen on Wednesday morning. Bruce Perens will arrive here on Tuesday. They will both talk at our national conference on open source. We have sold out tickets to the conference, BTW. I hadn’t thought we’d get 300 people, but we have. (if you really want to join us, drop me a note, and I’ll see what I can do).
