Open Source Government
Today an article came across slashdot, reporting that the USA government was plugging open-source software. In the comments on slashdot was a very humorous comment:
If the Government uses open source code that is under the GPL license, and modifies it to include some security or other feature that is considered to be under the umbrella of “National Security”, are they required to provide the source code to terrorists so they can attempt to crack it?
Depends. If my company uses OSS in an internal application, I don’t have to release the changes back to the public. But, if my company were to distribute a product that uses it we’d have to provide source code.
I’m assuming that the military would not have to release source code in UAV’s because they tend to get those products back and therefore it would be an internal product or application. They’d have to release the source for any bombs or missiles though because they are delivering that product to the public.