Soviets Backed Open Source Software in the '80s?
By El Snatcher
We found this article floating around the net (USENET, mailing lists, etc.) It is most likely a completely fake news story, but what if it isn't? At least it's entertaining... We can't find it on the Reuters site anywhere, but sometimes things are hard to find there... What do you think?
Tuesday December 15 1:49 AM ET Open Source Software: Echoes from the Cold War ST PETERSBURG Dec 15 (Reuters) - Following the public release of the latest batch of Soviet documents in November this year, Alexei Chelenko, curator of the Soviet Archives at Moscow University, discovered a paper trail which shows that the KGB, the now defunct Soviet secret police, made anonymous donations to Free Software Foundation sponsored Open Source Software development projects. Open Source is a scheme in which computer software development is carried out by thousands of volunteers on the Internet. Its products are freely available and include operating systems, Web servers, and scripting languages. Organizations such as the Free Software Foundation accept donations from third parties for the purpose of developing Open Source software. The documents allegedly show that during the 1980s various Open Source projects, including some developed by the Free Software Foundation, unknowingly received money from the Soviet government totaling more than $175,000. "It really boggles the mind," Chelenko said, "why the Soviet government would be involved in such a scheme." Ivan Prymakov of the Moscow University Department of Computer Science is not surprised. "It was in all likelihood a desperate attempt by the Soviet Government to hinder the booming US computer industry of the '80s," he said. Prymakov speculates that by donating to US-based Open Source projects, the Soviet government may have been trying to hinder the American economy. "By helping to develop inexpensive alternatives to commercial software, the KGB may have hoped to drive US software corporations out of business, derail the whole US computer industry, and thus destabalize the US economy," said Pyrmakov. Sergei Kochkov, an Open Source developer and a post graduate student in Prymakov's department, worries that this revelation could hinder the adoption by private business of Open Source Software such as Linux. Linux, an Open Source computer operating system, includes many utilities which may have been developed with Soviet financial assistance. Kochkov fears that the Open Source movement may have been an unsuspecting pawn in Cold War politics. "The Cold War is over, and this incident should be regarded as an unimportant footnote in history," Kochkov said. Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. |
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