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Free software is vital for the public and state-run infrastructure of a free society

by Miriam Bastian Contributions Published on Nov 19, 2024 04:51 PM
An Austrian petitioner succeeded in realizing what the US government failed to see: that free software is vital for the infrastructure of a free society.
Free software is vital for the public and state-run infrastructure of a free society

The United States White House with the four freedom icons above.

The way that governments get hooked on proprietary software tends to be predatory in nature, often based on offering gratis or low-cost samples only to jack up prices and take away control after a government is dependent on nonfree software. This story of trapping governments into using proprietary software is a known strategy by industry giants such as Microsoft.

The negative example: How Microsoft became a monopoly in US government cybersecurity

The United States White House with the four icons representing the four freedoms in a row, including: the play icon; a magnifying glass; a hand with a heart over it; and a group of puzzle pieces fitting together.

In summer 2021, Microsoft offered the US government a free trial of their cybersecurity software. Note that at this point some of Microsoft's software had already proved to be full of security lapses that had made it easy for Russian hackers to steal sensitive data from federal US agencies, including the National Nuclear Security Administration!

While some members of Congress had criticized Microsoft's insecure products and Sen. Ron Wyden (OR) demanded that the government "reevaluates its dependence on Microsoft" before granting it any more contracts, others waved these concerns aside and allowed Microsoft to install more of the company's products across many government agencies. When the free trial ended, it was too late for the government to quit using Microsoft's software without swallowing huge financial and administrative costs, firmly cementing Microsoft's control of US government cybersecurity. Microsoft's strategy was likened to one employed by drug dealers by its own former sales leaders: "If we give you the crack, and you take the crack, you’ll enjoy the crack, and then when it comes time for us to take the crack away, your end users will say, ‘Don’t take it away from me.’ And you’ll be forced to pay me."

When it comes to improving cybersecurity, free software is the right choice!

A common misconception is that proprietary software is more secure than software that respects your freedom. The fact that hackers with links to China breached several US telecommunication service providers this month to access the wiretap systems which the US uses to surveil its own citizens proves this to be wrong once more. This is what happens when governments surveil their own citizens: other governments also want to have a piece of the pie. Proprietary software makes it easy for them because only a handful of developers know how it works, where the weak spots are, and what this software really does (and now China knows, too). When it comes to improving cybersecurity, free software is the right choice! Not only does it grant its users full freedom, it also often is more secure than proprietary software because free software is backed by an entire community of developers able to improve the program and to check the source code for bugs and back doors. You don't have to trust one company to detect, communicate, and fix bugs.

Why public and state-run infrastructure should always be free software

No government should rip freedom from the hands of its people, forcing them to give up their freedom to run, study, modify, and share software. When it comes to government infrastructure, citizens often have no options: they have to use it. Therefore, government infrastructure should always respect its user's freedom!

The great thing is that free software can at the same time help enhance transparency, sustainability, and digital sovereignty of governments:

  • Transparency: no government should force its citizens to use untransparent software where no one can check what it really does. Free software allows its users to study the source code and thereby learn if the software is actually doing what it is supposed to do.

  • Sustainability: free software is indispensable for the Right to Repair in that it can considerably reduce e-waste because devices can run much longer when we're able to modify or replace their preloaded software with free software. It can extend the life of hardware even once the seller decided to no longer maintain the preloaded software.

  • Digital sovereignty: every government must maintain control over its computing and not cede control to the proprietary products of companies. Government entities need to be able to run the software that powers their processes as required, not as a company dictates and be able to modify the software if it doesn't serve as needed. In addition, they should be able to copy and share public software with their citizens and with other groups and organizations serving the public interest. Only free software grants all these freedoms.

On top of the above, there are practical advantages of free software such as the fact that it can increase interoperability, support local and small businesses, and reduce costs.

When a government, local or country-wide, finances the development of software with taxpayer money, it has an obligation to release it as free software!

Positive examples

There are showcase projects that demonstrate that governments can successfully adopt free software. An excellent example is the Indian Department of Electronics & Information Technology's work on many initiatives for fostering the adoption of free software, including the creation of a National Resource Centre for free software. There's also a recent initiative in the European Union (EU) called Petition No. 0729/2024. Launched in June 2024, the petition calls for the EU to develop and implement GNU/Linux across public administrations in the EU. The petition text explicitly states that the initiative "aims to reduce dependency on Microsoft products, ensuring compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and promoting transparency, sustainability, and digital sovereignty within the EU." This is a great initiative to promote free software adoption in governments! Please support it!

Call to Action

Government officials of the world, don't fall for harmful deals like Microsoft's White House Offer. Instead, be like the Austrian petitioner and champion for free software in government! Read about measures governments can use to promote free software.

Free software activists around the world, write to your government officials at all levels, share this article with them, and demand that they migrate public and state-run infrastructure to free software. The LibrePlanet wiki has a free software in government page that offers some resources which can help you to lobby for free software adoption by your government.

Government adoption of free software can have an enormous impact on the spread of free software because the government employs many people, awards millions of dollars in software contracts each year, and most people interact with their government in various ways. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has been campaigning for free software adoption by governments for more than a decade. We demand that our government and we, its people, not be held hostage to proprietary software.

In the most recent Free Software Bulletin, which hopefully already reached your postbox, you can read more about why free software is an important building block to a free society. If you didn't receive the physical Bulletin just yet, stay tuned: we'll publish it on the web shortly.

The FSF is currently having its year-end fundraiser. Donate or become an associate member to help us reach our fundraising goal of USD$ 400,000!

May we see more free software in government soon!

Four freedoms at the White House adapted from WhiteHouseSouthFacade by the Free Software Foundation, Inc. The original photo was taken 2006 by Matt H. Wade and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. The adapted image is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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