4 ms·

Most of the code in electronic voting is owned by the vendors though so by the same standard would we have to open source any 3rd party software the govt aquire

Most of the code in electronic voting is owned by the vendors though so by the same standard would we have to open source any 3rd party software the govt aquires?

PurpleBoxDragon 8y ago
I think it would have to be a requirement of any money the government spends on code. Otherwise, they will easily defeat the requirement to make it public by passing it through a private company.
vanderZwan 8y ago
I don't quite follow your line of thinking here: - currently most electronic voting software is owned by the vendors - electronic voting should really not be trusted, period, but definitely not be allowed to be closed source - therefore, we should ban any electronic voting software not made on open source software (arguably even hardware) - therefore, I am implying vendors of electronic voting software should only be allowed to use a fully open source software stack in their final product I do not see the jump from this reasoning to any software used by the government must be open source (if I understand you correctly).
- throwawaymath 8y ago
  That's a lot more involved and domain-specific than the question of whether or not government-owned code should be open source. The person you're responding to is just making the positive observation that, since electronic voting software is licensed - not produced - by the government, you can't mandate it be open sourced via e.g. a FOIA request. You are making a normative declaration that it should be open sourced because it's important and intrinsically untrusted software, and as a consequence it either will be or electronic voting won't be possible. These are separate things. You're talking about what ought to be, the other commenter is talking about what (currently) is.
  - vanderZwan 8y ago
    Right, I see where GP and I were talking past each other now now. Thank you for clarifying!
  - vanderZwan 8y ago
    Having said that, I think there is a more general point to be made from bringing up electronic voting in the discussion of open source + government funded software development. Licensed products are an inevitable loophole to be exploited unless we stipulate rules for use-cases like this. Inevitable because some products will always be licensed, and mandating that everything the government uses must be open source is... well, actually, that sounds great, but even if such a policy were implemented that would be a slow, tough transition to make.

Most of the code in electronic voting is owned by the vendors though so by the same standard would we have to open source any 3rd party software the govt aquires?

PurpleBoxDragon 8y ago

I think it would have to be a requirement of any money the government spends on code. Otherwise, they will easily defeat the requirement to make it public by passing it through a private company.

vanderZwan 8y ago

I don't quite follow your line of thinking here: - currently most electronic voting software is owned by the vendors - electronic voting should really not be trusted, period, but definitely not be allowed to be closed source - therefore, we should ban any electronic voting software not made on open source software (arguably even hardware) - therefore, I am implying vendors of electronic voting software should only be allowed to use a fully open source software stack in their final product I do not see the jump from this reasoning to any software used by the government must be open source (if I understand you correctly).

throwawaymath 8y ago
That's a lot more involved and domain-specific than the question of whether or not government-owned code should be open source. The person you're responding to is just making the positive observation that, since electronic voting software is licensed - not produced - by the government, you can't mandate it be open sourced via e.g. a FOIA request. You are making a normative declaration that it should be open sourced because it's important and intrinsically untrusted software, and as a consequence it either will be or electronic voting won't be possible. These are separate things. You're talking about what ought to be, the other commenter is talking about what (currently) is.
- vanderZwan 8y ago
  Right, I see where GP and I were talking past each other now now. Thank you for clarifying!
- vanderZwan 8y ago
  Having said that, I think there is a more general point to be made from bringing up electronic voting in the discussion of open source + government funded software development. Licensed products are an inevitable loophole to be exploited unless we stipulate rules for use-cases like this. Inevitable because some products will always be licensed, and mandating that everything the government uses must be open source is... well, actually, that sounds great, but even if such a policy were implemented that would be a slow, tough transition to make.