Earlier this week, three members of the House of Representatives, Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and Jim Davis (D-Fla.), sent a note to 74 Democrats in Congress attacking Linux's GNU General Public License (GPL) as a threat to America's "innovation and security." The note urged members to support a letter written by Reps. Tom Davis (R-Va.) and Jim Turner (D-Texas) to Richard Clarke, who heads the board in charge of hammering out U.S. cybersecurity policy. Davis and Turner's letter asks that the plan explicitly reject "licenses that would prevent or discourage commercial adoption of promising cybersecurity technologies developed through federal R&D." ... Smith, whose largest political contributor is Microsoft, has come under fire for his involvement in the controversy. But Smith's spokesperson, Katherine Lister, says the congressman was motivated by a desire to foster innovation. "In no way, shape or form does Microsoft ever drive our technology policy," she said. ... I remember a time when Microsoft didn't play the political game. Those days are gone for good. All it took was a little anti-trust muscle to get the palm greasing going. Makes you wonder who the real victim ultimately is. Granted, they probably would have started playing on their own terms at sometime in the future, but I digress... Between Microsoft and Intel, it looks like Washington state has been officially bought and sold. Thank you Rep. Adam Smith for proving to me that there is no difference between a Democrat and a Republican. You support this for *WHAT* reason? I need to find a country that sucks less than the United States. Any suggestions? [ The more paranoid might be asking themselves if the anti-trust effort might just have been geared toward this result. Or, at least, something similar like "Play nice with the gov like a normal corp or else...". Same result. Regarding other countries, I'm on that boat. I have a feeling things will continue to get worse. "Thought control" of your average American has become so incredibly sophisticated that I despair of there ever being change created via political means. Regardless, if you have not registered to vote then you should. . . --Rek ] Letter: Free Software Hurts U.S. | 
