Reuters: Microsoft Opens Guarded Source Code to Governments : To woo governments, Microsoft said it will make its source code available to government agencies over the Internet, provided they do not disclose that code. They will also be required to sign contracts, but will not have to pay for access.
The Register comments: It’s a trap. Don’t go there…, and writes:
Remarkably, this “unprecedented move” (Reuters) looks not entirely dissimilar to the Microsoft Government Shared Source Licensing Program, which has been available (to general disinterest) for some considerable time.
Helen Jung, AP Business Writer, reports that Michael Gartenberg, research director for Jupiter Research, commented:
“It’s a brilliant maneuver … It gives them a huge (public relations) win, gives them a response back to the open-source folks and also provides the impetus that many of the government organizations have been looking for to continue doing business with them.”
Michael Gartenberg wrote that and a bit more in his new Analyst Weblog, and it seems the AP writer picked that story up for her own story. Interesting.
