The Register: Lobbying for Insecurity

“The U.S. National Security Agency’s contribution to open-source
security, Security-Enhanced Linux, found broad approval and support
in geek forums from Wired News to Slashdot that are typically
suspicious of the government.

“It’s not surprising that it couldn’t last, however, and a
recent CNET article suggests that the NSA may not make further
contributions to software released under the GNU General Public
License, and perhaps other open-source licenses.

“What prompted this decision? Not abuse of their code by script
kiddies, nor the ungrateful trolling of the hordes, but lobbying by
the U.S. software industry against the government giving away
something that could compete with products sold commercially.
Microsoft in particular allegedly conducted intense lobbying to
block further open-source development by the NSA, according to
CNET…”

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