The Bangus Ultimatum

A panel of judges in Florida orders the release of breathalyzer source code to DUI defendants:

“It seems to us that one should not have privileges and freedom jeopardised by the results of a mystical machine that is immune from discovery, that inhales breath samples and that produces a report specifying a degree of intoxication,” a February 2004 court ruling stated…

If CMI keeps refusing to subject the application to an independent audit, it is unlikely that a judge can force it to do so. This would render the results of the test inadmissible in court.”

UPDATE: Breathalyzers aren’t the only machines of legal consequence that have embedded code. Think about the processors and the programming behind computing your tax (the BIR claims it used datamining to sniff out tax evaders), the tabulation of votes (at least at the central level), and the determination of DNA matches.

Without access to the source code, they are for all intents and purposes “mystical machines” – and making conviction contingent on such “black boxes” may raise due-process concerns.

I’ll chalk this one up as another reason for government-led adoption of open source (or shared source, or at least open standards). “Certainly, the courts can require the disclosure of even proprietary sourcecode through the discovery process, why go through the extreme of modifying ourt entire tech procurement policy?” Buy why wait for the courts to review code post-facto (after the damage has been done, and expensive litigation started?) Are we not entitled, as taxpayers, to have an objective assurance that the code that our government purchases, the code that could send us to jail (or to death) are working the wayt they’re supposed to?