Free software and public administrations?

Anton Zinoviev anton at lml.bas.bg
Tue Nov 26 16:08:11 UTC 2002


On 26.XI.2002 at 16:16 Simo Sorce wrote:
> 
> Why should they distribute this software? Is it need to be able to use a
> public service?

I don't know.  Say they want to give it only to those they want to
communicate with.

> A secret algorithm in the security field is useless by definition.

As far as I know there is no known cryptography algorithm which is
mathematically proven to be secure.  We only expect them to be secure.
If the algorithm is good, then it is difficult to crack it, but if it
is also not known, then this is even more difficult.  Secret
algorithms also make the system a little bit more secure against human
mistakes, say weak passwords.

> If the law is an obstacle you can try to live with LGPLed software that
> use closed modules if you find no other way.

Sometimes I have proposed to make free programs that use plugins,
distribute them together with several free plugins, but use them with
a private plugin.

Anton Zinoviev



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