---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Ravi Shanker raviscn@gmail.com
*The Free Software movement had raised an issue relating the possible threat to sovereignty due to the UID project. This fear was raised in the context of Microsoft's declaration of desire to be a partner on the UID project. Microsoft as a corporation is tied to the laws of the United States of America. Microsoft being a proponent of proprietorial software would never let out the source code of the programs it would use on any project. If Microsoft or any other provider partners on the UID project there could be three possible situations: 1) In case of an adverse international political situation a foreign government could order the software vendor to lock or cripple the UID database in India – a case of cyber-warfare; 2) it could lead to a situation of a vendor lock-in, whereby each time the UIDAI wishes to make changes to the database it would require the services of the software vendor, thus enabling the vendor continue to earn rent income; 3) the use of proprietorial software could have the unintended consequence of being incompatible with e-governance platforms which already use Open Source programing.
The UIDAI team responded to these concerns: 1) The Open Source model will be used for the UID project and the Source Code will be under public ownership; 2) all APIs will be standard and published APIs and can be accessed using a variety of software; 3) Proprietorial software may have to be used for specialized tasks like biometrics for that may be the cheaper and more efficient choice at hand, but in such cases the contract with the software firms will have sufficient safeguards to prevent any vendor lock-in.*
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