There is a place for copyright. i.e. so recording artists and producers can make money from what they create. However, it has gone way to far. There should be more freedom for Fair Use. Creative Common is a terrific model for sharing and remixing in the 21st century. CC fills the gap nicely between Copyrighted and Public Domain works.

Max security is not needed in all gov’t offices. Many office computers are used for basic functionality-office productivity, e-mail, & web browsing. Open source software could suffice, & save $millions. They’re often more secure than MS Office, Outlook, and IE. Windows’ often attacked with viruses thru these, where Linux has none. Windows runs as a vulnerable default root user, Linux doesn’t.

If we’re going to talk about Openness and standardization, then we should also talk about ODF. Open Document Format is an OSI standardized document that many governments are adopting to archive their records. More at http://www.odfalliance.org/. If you’re worried about MS Office compatibility, Sun has a plugin http://www.sun.com/software/star/odf_plugin/