'Libertarian' group attacks open source

A libertarian organisation which lists Microsoft as a donor has kicked off a campaign against open source software, and recommended that government and federal institutions keep to proprietary systems.

The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, which claims to represent "civil liberty, political equality and economic freedom and opportunity", has posted a document on its website which bashes open source, making an instant enemy of the geek community.

The 33-page paper, entitled Opening the Open Source debate, argues that open source software is more likely to be compromised by terrorists than proprietary software.

During a blistering attack, not just on open source but on the General Public Licence (GPL), the report states: "A federal agency's decision to use GPL open source from the public domain must accompany the assumption that potential attackers either already have, or could easily acquire, a duplicate copy of the same exact source code."

The argument suggests that proprietary material is more secure from attack, because the code is not available.

"Opening the code to potential attackers provides a free education, inadvertently teaching attackers how to create and mimic the same security techniques," the paper added.

Another consideration for the government is its "productive alliance with private enterprise".

The report said that any decision on a government's behalf to use GPL source code would "inherently turn away many of its partners in government-sponsored research projects".

There is speculation in the open source community that the report is a Microsoft-backed attempt to scare governments away from the increasing interest in open source software.