[link|http://newsvac.newsforge.com/newsvac/02/10/23/1247236.shtml?tid=4|Or something like that]
Excerpt:
The terms of restrictive license's - such as those in the GNU or GPL - prevent companies from adopting, improving, commercializing and deriving profits from the software by precluding companies from establishing commercial IP rights in any subsequent code. Thus, if government R&D creates a security innovation under a restrictive license, a commercial vendor will not integrate that code into its software. So long as government research is not released under licensing terms that restrict commercialization, publicly funded research provides an important resource for the software industry.
New Democrats have long supported public-private partnerships -- it's important that any licenses do not compromise a company's intellectual property rights in their own technology. I encourage you to sign the attached letter to Mr. Clarke. If you have any questions, please contact Mike Mullen (Rep. Jim Turner; 5-2401) or John Mulligan (Rep. Adam Smith; 5-8901). Thank you.
Sincerely,
[link|http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.asp?CID=N00007833&cycle=2002|Adam Smith] Member of Congress
Ron Kind Member of Congress
Jim Davis Member of Congress