[Editor’s Note: The headline used by NewsForge is
inaccurate; Rep. Smith is not trying to outlaw GPL with a proposed
law–he is soliciting support to prevent government use of GPL’ed
software in a letter to the White House’s policymaker on
cybersecurity. In keeping with LT policy to reproduce exact
headings whenever possible, however, I have kept the headline as
is. -BKP]
“Leaders of the New Democrat Coalition attempt to outlaw GPL. A
call to sign off on explicit rejection of ‘licenses that would
prevent or discourage commercial adoption of promising cyber
security technologies developed through federal R & D.’ has
been issued by Adam Smith, Congressman for the Ninth District in
the State of Washington.“It’s already signed off on by Rep. Tom Davis(R-Va), Chairman of
Government Reform Subcomittee on Technology, and Rep. Jim Turner
(D-TX) Ranking Member of the same committee, with the backing of
Rep. Jim Davis (D-FL), and Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI).“It’s a note to fellow New Democrats under the guise of
protecting commercial interest’s right to make money from the
fruits of federal R & D, and to sign off on an attached letter
to Richard A. Clarke, Chair of the President’s Critical
Infrastructure.“They are attempting to convince Clarke, Chair of the
President’s that licensing terms such as ‘those in the GNU or GPL’
are restrictive, preclude innovation, improvement, adoption and
establishment of commercial IP rights…”