[Fsf-friends] Fwd: On UID and FOSS

[jaykumar hs]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ravi Shanker <raviscn at gmail.com>


http://pragoti.org/node/3686

*The Free Software movement had raised an issue relating the possible threat
to sovereignty due to the UID project. This fear was raised in the context
of Microsoft's declaration of desire to be a partner on the UID project.
Microsoft as a corporation is tied to the laws of the United States of
America. Microsoft being a proponent of proprietorial software would never
let out the source code of the programs it would use on any project. If
Microsoft or any other provider partners on the UID project there could be
three possible situations: 1) In case of an adverse international political
situation a foreign government could order the software vendor to lock or
cripple the UID database in India – a case of cyber-warfare; 2) it could
lead to a situation of a vendor lock-in, whereby each time the UIDAI wishes
to make changes to the database it would require the services of the
software vendor, thus enabling the vendor continue to earn rent income; 3)
the use of proprietorial software could have the unintended consequence of
being incompatible with e-governance platforms which already use Open Source
programing.

The UIDAI team responded to these concerns: 1) The Open Source model will be
used for the UID project and the Source Code will be under public ownership;
2) all APIs will be standard and published APIs and can be accessed using a
variety of software; 3) Proprietorial software may have to be used for
specialized tasks like biometrics for that may be the cheaper and more
efficient choice at hand, but in such cases the contract with the software
firms will have sufficient safeguards to prevent any vendor lock-in.*

* *
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