<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Ravi Shanker</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:raviscn@gmail.com" target="_blank">raviscn@gmail.com</a>></span><br>
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<br><a href="http://pragoti.org/node/3686" target="_blank">http://pragoti.org/node/3686</a><br><br><i>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. <br><br><b>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.</b></i>
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