Last October, the Bulgarian government made an agreement with Microsoft for some software for the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Since this is a security agency, the government is understandably worried about security; in particular, they wanted assurances that they could get some source code so that they could be assured there are no "Back Doors" or vulnerabilities. This is pretty funny in itself, especially since Microsoft, which presumably allows its own people to look at its source code, can't even figure out where the Back Doors and vulnerabilities are.

But it gets even funnier. Microsoft has agreed to give Bulgaria "the code", as long as the Bulgarian government agrees to not release the terms of the agreement. The gossip is also that they agree to not compile the code. But if they aren't allowed to compile it, how do they really know what code it is?

The government decided to turn the whole agreement over to the Bulgarian parliament, but since they are not allowed to see the agreement, Mr. Stoycho Katzarov likened the vote to "signing a blank piece of paper." There was also speculation that the government was trying to foist off the responsibility of a possible bad decision onto the parliament.

The argument was made that Microsoft doesn't want to reveal the terms of the agreement because the source code to Windows is secret. Mr. Katzarov pointed out that publishing the source code is absolutly a different issue from publishing the agreement, and if anyone said that some source code is going to be present in an agreement document, the assertion would be ridiculous, and the "computer guys that deal with software professionally will laugh at them."

Now the whole thing is beginning to sound like another chapter of Alice in Wonderland. A proposal was made to postpone the voting on the issue. The Bulgarian parliament has 240 members; only 130 were there that day, but nearly all voted for postponement. Since it was practically unanimous, after the vote the chairman of the parliament said, "Thank you gentlemen for the vote, the proposal for postponing is accepted. It seems we can work wisely when there is an agreement in the parliament's hall."

This means at least a few months of delay. During this time some questions have to be answered. For example, "Microsoft licensed software to Australia, NATO, Norway, FIndland, New Zeland, China, and Turkey...why won't they reveal the conditions of those agreements to us? Maybe they did not license the software with the same conditions, or there are other issues creating a monopoly in the government agencies." Also, "If the Bulgarian government is granted the source code, why can't we use it for the other governent agencies and ministries ...we already payed about $14,000,000 for a 3 year license for WindowsXP and OfficeXP for the ministry of Civil Service just last year!"

With a little time, questions like these will be discussed and intelligent conclusions will be reached. Time will surely help the cause of Free Software. There are also some indications that Mr. Dimitur Kalchev, the minister in charge of Bulgaria's e-Government program (which is coincidentally based on preprietary MS .NET technology), is showing signs of reconsidering FLOSS.

Although things are certainly in a state of confusion in Bulgaria, it looks as if decision-makers are getting somewhat suspicious of Microsoft's real intentions. We'll be reporting on any new developments; and as usual, this will be one of the only places you can find anything in English. You certainly won't find it in a press release on the Microsoft site.