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Software Government

Library of Congress Explores Ways To Release OS Software 40

An anonymous reader writes "The Library of Congress has established an internal process to start creating more open source software which will make it easier for software developers and sponsors within the Library to produce software that can be freely redistributed to users worldwide. The Library has released some open source software to this point, concentrating on developing tools that support digital preservation processes, including the secure transfer of digital files. This includes the release of a full suite of digital content transfer tools that support the Bagit specification."
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Library of Congress Explores Ways To Release OS Software

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  • Once we know how much software this program creates, we can finally express amounts of software in the universal "a Library of Congress worth of" units!
  • How many Libraries Of Congress will the source code amount to?

    Or is it easier to measure it in VW Bugs? Football field lengths?

    I'm confused.

  • by starbugs ( 1670420 ) on Friday January 29, 2010 @06:07PM (#30956752)

    I think this is great news, but what happens if inadvertently some of this software infringes on a patent or two?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by sakdoctor ( 1087155 )

      You see, Oliver...

      In this life, one thing counts
      In the bank, large amounts
      I'm afraid these don't grow on trees,
      You've got to infringe a patent or two

      You've got to infringe a patent or two, boys,
      You've got to infringe a patent or two.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      I think this is great news, but what happens if inadvertently some of this software infringes on a patent or two?

      The same thing that happens when any other open source infringes on a patent. Absolutely nothing unless or until the patent owner decides to sue somebody. There is no hole ripped in the space-time continuum, nobody is going to get arrested, nothing will self-destruct.

      BTW--The Library of Congress != USPTO. Copyrights are registered with the U.S. Copyright Office and copies of the works are stor

    • by Kjella ( 173770 )

      Same as every other software that infringes on a patent or two? Some patent troll gets richer but hopefully some politician cares enough about the library of congress to do something about it. At least the odds are better than going after companies or individual contributors.

    • by RoboRay ( 735839 ) on Friday January 29, 2010 @06:42PM (#30957108)

      Maybe somebody with pull will finally realize how stupid software patents are and get them abolished?

  • by Anonymous Coward

    I find it ironic in a sad shoot myself in the head sort of way that the copyright.gov requires IE 6 and does not work with the firefox. I was trying to copyright some material today ( graphic art not software), and was finally forced to run windows xp using vbox with windows 6 on linux to be able to upload the images.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Perhaps they could start by consulting someone like RMS and Linus rather than involving themselves with Microsoft and proprietary software:

    "Taxation without web presentation
    The Library of Congress recently signed a deal to accept 3 million dollars worth of "technology, services and funding" from Microsoft towards building a new website powered by Microsoft's Silverlight plug-in."

    "Most disturbingly, users are locked in, too: anybody using an iPhone, an old version of Windows, any version of Linux, or any oth

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