A Washington think tank called the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution has released its anticipated study of the dangers of open-source software. Much to our disappointment, the organization's press release, which last week promised that the study would explain in gory detail how open-source software will foster international terrorism, turns out to have been a tissue of headline-pimping lies. Indeed, the paper never mentions terrorism at all. Instead, it overflows with the usual half-truth drivel about the economic dangers of the GPL which one can find re-hashed daily on the Microsoft 'Press Pass' PR site and the editorial pages of ZD-Net News. More than half the paper is an enumeration of the Crimes against Commerce of Richard Stallman.

As for system security, the paper allows that having the source code to a well-secured OS or application is little help to an attacker, just as knowing the layout of Fort Knox isn't going to help you sneak in and empty the joint. But it tries to persuade us that not having the source code means we're all safe from hackers.