Without a ban on federal money for purchasing proprietary Electronic Medical Record software and requirements for licenses such as the Affero General Public License that safeguard public rights and ensures sustainability, we will become a nation of renters of poorly performing health IT software infrastructure that taxpayers paid dearly for, and will pay for again and again."

Open source software in government was the topic on the Linux blogs this week, particularly President Obama's request that Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy prepare a paper on how the U.S. government can use open source technologies.

FREE SOFTWARE activists fear that the Marxists are trying to hijack their movement in Kerala.

The CPM- led state government recently sacked two proponents of the movement, who had formulated the state's information technology policy based on free software. This follows attempts by the CPM to form networks in Chennai and Bangalore in the name of free software, but strictly under party control.

"From reading the official European Commission documentation on its proposed Copyright Term Extension Directive, one might believe perpetuating performer copyrights from 50 to 95 years in Europe is a charitable policy with no ill effects at all.

A lot of people seem surprised by the news that Obama exchanged standards for lock-in (Microsoft). But none of this should be shocking and the candidacy/parties do not matter. That’s just how this system is intended to be run

"...Digital rights management (DRM) refers to technologies typically used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, and copyright holders to attempt to control how consumers access and use media and entertainment content. Among other issues, the workshop will address the need to improve disclosures to consumers about DRM limitations.

WITH M.Arun, special officer of the proposed International Centre For
Free And Open Source Software(ICFOSS), also getting marching orders,
free software exponents in the state suspect the entry of a dreaded
virus allegedly spread by Microsoft to shutdown the free software
movement in the state.

Microsoft funds are swinging from the Republicans to the Democrats as the parties swap positions