Re: [Australia-public-discuss] [free-software-melb] Video/audio from patents talk and committee hearing

[Matt Giuca]

> I believe that software which is used by the government, which the government
> compells citizens to use (EG for communicating with government agencies), or
> which is needed to interpret data published by the government (IE for reading
> anything from abs.gov.au) should at the minimum have the source available via
> escrow.  If in 30 years time someone wants to view old government data that is
> published in MS-Excel format (as happens a lot on abs.gov.au) then we
> shouldn't be denied access if MS stop selling the software.

Yes, I absolutely agree with all of that. I was talking about
individuals' right to choose proprietary software, and companies'
right to produce it, not about governments which serve people.