Governments can view Office 2003 source code under a recent expansion of the Government Security Shared Source (GSSS) program. The program enables national governments to review source code for Microsoft products to ensure that they meet security requirements, diluting one of the main advantages that open-source products offer over Microsoft's. Adding Office to the GSSS program could particularly help against the open-source OpenOffice.org productivity suite in the government market.

Governments in the GSSS program have read-only access to source code for Windows, Office, developer tools, and security-related components, such as cryptographic code. Enrollees access code through a smart-card-protected Web site or onsite at Microsoft headquarters, and receive technical information to help interpret the code. The program is restricted to the 60 or so countries that Microsoft considers to have "intellectual property regimes that meet international standards."

The GSSS program is summarized at www.microsoft.com/resources/sharedsource/Licensing/GSP.mspx.

A survey of source code access programs appeared in "Many Eyes Look Through Windows" on page 6 of the May 2004 Update.