Re: [d@DCC] Health privacy and license agreements

From: Michael Richardson <mcr _-at-_ sandelman.ottawa.on.ca>
To: General Discussion <discuss (at) digital-copyright.ca>
Date: Thu, 21 Nov 2002 23:02:07 -0500

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>>>>> "mskala" == mskala  <mskala@ansuz.sooke.bc.ca> writes:
    mskala> On Thu, 21 Nov 2002, Michael Richardson wrote:
    >> It is an argument for not using Windows. There are plenty of additional
    >> arguments why Windows should be excised from our hospitals - simply put, the
    >> systems were not secure enough EULA or not, to hold medical data.

    mskala> Well, my interest was primarily in the license agreement allowing
    mskala> Microsoft access to the computer; there's a qualitative difference between
    mskala> "the system might have flaws allowing undesired persons to gain access"

  No, the system has design *features* that permit undesired persons to gain
access. These are NOT flaws. They are there by *DESIGN*. To say otherwise it
to let them off the hook for their design decisions.

    mskala> An open-source platform is preferable in this respect to a non-Windows
    mskala> non-open-source platform, because the open-source platform is more open to
    mskala> auditing to make sure it's free of back doors.  (Not that that's

  No, that's not true.

  It may be somewhat *cheaper* because many other pieces may have been
reviewed, but since very little open source has had *formal* reviews done by
people who have well known qualifications, all of the code has to be looked
at again.

  Further, the *ease* of pulling in code into an open source project often
means that the shear lines of codes is WAY higher. Look at GNOME. No
commercial organization would have produced it --- way too expensive to
maintain all of that code for many revisions. Open source people simply tell
you "go upgrade" if you try to find a bug in a previous major release.

  having said all of this, I still prefer open source. But, assume that it is
as expensive to produce, otherwise, you get ... CRAP.

]                   At IETF55 in Atlanta, GA                    |  firewalls  [
]   Michael Richardson, Sandelman Software Works, Ottawa, ON    |net architect[
] mcr@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca http://www.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca/ |device driver[
] printk("Just another Debian GNU/Linux using, kernel hacking, security guy");[

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