[NTLUG:Discuss] Gov funded GPL'd code

[Lance Simmons]

On Fri, Jun 01, 2001 at 10:05:23PM -0500, Rick Cook wrote:
> 
> [...] the US government should fund work for products that are
> _necessary_ for the US government to perform its functions
> [...] If, in the course of doing this, a product of general
> use happened to appear, it might be reasonable for it to put
> that product in the public domain.[...]

Who is going to decide which such products might, when put in
the right hands, help contribute to something generally useful?
Whoever that person or institution is, he, she or they may well
have conflicting interests that would tend to favor not
releasing some products that would actually be generally useful.
Why not just make all government-funded products available to
everyone under the GPL and see what happens? (There might have
to be exceptions for some security requirements, I suppose, but
the default could be to GPL it unless there are unusual security
issues involved.)

> Most of the development funding the US government provides
> does not go toward products that would be of any value to the
> vast majority of the citizenry of our country.

You are probably right. The crucial word here, however, is
"would". What procedure is to be used to decide what would (or
could) be of general use? And why should the government bother
setting up an elaborate procedure for deciding, when the
products could simply all be GPL'd (with appropriate exceptions,
etc...)?

-- 
  .~.
  /v\   Lance Simmons
 // \\  lance at lsimmons.net
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Old MacDonald had an agricultural real estate tax abatement.