[Editor’s Note: Paragraph breaks added here for better
legibility. -BKP]
“According to this China Times article (in Chinese), the
Republic of China government has asked Microsoft to open Windows
source code. The official, Lin Jua-Cheng, in charge of the
‘e-government’ initiative, says many other countries have also sent
similar requests to Microsoft.“Lin explains that without Windows source code, the government
cannot add custom firewall functionalities to Windows based systems
in wide use, and that is very bad for the information security of
Taiwan.“Microsoft refused to release source code in the past using
reasons of copyright protection, but Lin emphasizes this request is
reasonable since it is based on (government users’)
necessity…”