[PLUG-TALK] TPP trade pact prohibits computer source code auditing + open source concerns

Keith Lofstrom keithl at gate.kl-ic.com
Sat Nov 7 23:59:10 UTC 2015


A libertarian programmer friend writes:

----- Forwarded message from "Martin L. Buchanan" <martinlbuchanan at gmail.com> -----

http://www.wired.com/2015/11/trade-pact-could-bar-governments-from-auditing-source-code/

Article 14.17 of proposal, published
<https://ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/trans-pacific-partnership/tpp-full-text>
at last today after years of secret negotiations, says: “No Party shall
require the transfer of, or access to, source code of software owned by a
person of another Party, as a condition for the import, distribution, sale
or use of such software, or of products containing such software, in its
territory.”

The proposal includes an exception for critical infrastructure, but it’s
not clear whether software involved in life or death situations, such as
cars, airplanes, or medical devices would be included.

*****

A good example that government-managed "free trade" has little to do with
actual freedom.

And for election systems, gaming systems, systems that need to verify open
source license compliance, and many other systems, this is a really bad
idea.

----- End forwarded message -----

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com



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