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[News] Why Proprietary Software is Bad: Secrecy, Loss

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No Secret Software!

,----[ Quote ]
| This is very closely aligned to the struggle for the use of open-source 
| software where appropriate, but “Open Source” is a term of art and is 
| associated with ill-groomed inarticulate geeks who have odd opinions about 
| lots of things. “Secret software” is a term that anyone can understand 
| instantly, and it sounds creepy and dangerous; because secret software in the 
| public sector is creepy and dangerous, and simply shouldn’t be allowed.     
| 
| Ms Peterson gently chided the Open-Source community for having let the 
| e-voting debacle happen in the first place; it was foreseeable and should 
| have been headed off. I think she has a point.  
`----

http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2008/07/27/No-Secret-Software

Here's what happens when code is hidden and locked away:

Sega Can't Find The Source Code For Your Favorite Old School Arcade Games

,----[ Quote ]
| In our last video featuring Sega of America's Simon Jeffery, the president of 
| the company explains why we haven't seen any System 16 or System 24 games on 
| Xbox Live Arcade or the PlayStation Network. He also talks about his 
| reluctance to put some of those games on Live due to Microsoft's requirement 
| to update a game's graphics before porting.    
`----

http://kotaku.com/5028197/sega-cant-find-the-source-code-for-your-favorite-old-school-arcade-games


Days ago:

Backdoor in Skype? We need an open-source replacement

,----[ Quote ]
| Deliberate or just flawed?
|
| So, assuming for a moment that the claim of the Austrian police is correct,
| there are two possibilities now: (a) Either Skype made a mistake somewhere in
| the implementation of their encryption algorithms and thus allowed a
| successful attack on their protocols. Or (b) they have deliberately provided
| a backdoor for law enforcement or other agencies.
|
| [...]
|
| And of course, Skype is ubiquituous. If you want to talk to people, you need
| to use what they are using. And everyone is using Skype.
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http://www.geekzone.co.nz/foobar/5472
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