[luau] NEWS: MS-funded think tank propagates open-source lies

[Warren Togami]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/25656.html

A Washington think tank called the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution has
released its anticipated study of the dangers of open-source software. Much
to our disappointment, the organization's press release, which last week
promised that the study would explain in gory detail how open-source
software will foster international terrorism, turns out to have been a
tissue of headline-pimping lies.

Indeed, the paper never mentions terrorism at all. Instead, it overflows
with the usual half-truth drivel about the economic dangers of the GPL which
one can find re-hashed daily on the Microsoft 'Press Pass' PR site and the
editorial pages of ZD-Net News. More than half the paper is an enumeration
of the Crimes against Commerce of Richard Stallman.

As for system security, the paper allows that having the source code to a
well-secured OS or application is little help to an attacker, just as
knowing the layout of Fort Knox isn't going to help you sneak in and empty
the joint. But it tries to persuade us that not having the source code means
we're all safe from hackers.

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