OSS, Spam and... most regrettably politics

[Mike Kallies]

Hello Everyone,

I'm afraid to even raise this point, politics are spooky, but has anyone 
else noticed that the Green party has a policy on OSS and Spam?

http://www.greenparty.ca/platform2004/en/policies.php?p=16

IMHO it's slightly misguided as to the requirements for laws on a couple 
points (forced transition and do-not-spam registries), but that's what 
feedback is for :-)

Has this always been the case?

-Mike

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Open Source Software	

In this era of increasing technology dependence, both in business and in 
daily life, software has become a vital economic resource. Software 
applications must be trustworthy, reliable and easy-to-use. The Open 
Source Movement is emerging as a competitive rival to privately 
developed and marketed software, producing programs of equal or better 
reliability and security.

The Green Party will:

     * Require federal agencies to initiate transitions to open source 
operating systems and productivity software.
     * Make technology that has been developed at public expense, a 
publicly owned resource. Software that has been developed at taxpayer 
expense will be released under an open source license, making it free 
for all Canadians to use.
     * Procure only software that stores, loads and transmits 
information in industry standard formats, for which full technical 
specifications are available. Procurement of systems that require closed 
licenses or use vendor-specific formats would be used only if no 
alternative is available.
     * Shorten the length of software patents to seven years. The 
software business cycle is so fast that longer patents only stifle 
innovation.

Canadian Spam Laws	

In Canada, over ten billion junk e-mails are sent every year. The 
federal government and the Canadian Radio-television and 
Telecommunications Commission have yet to address this issue. While spam 
is an international problem, Canada should start becoming part of the 
solution, rather than part of the problem.

The Green Party will create Anti-Spam laws with the following rules:

     * E-mail marketers will be forced to identify themselves properly.
     * Marketers must make their pitches honestly.
     * Marketers must honour any person’s request to be removed from 
their contact lists.
     * Marketers must abide by a Canadian “do-not-spam” registry.
     * CSIS will coordinate with the international law enforcement and 
security agencies to crack down on the worst spammers.
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