US Govt Commits To Publish Publicly Financed Software Under FOSS (k7r.eu)

An anonymous reader writes: The White House has published a draft (PDF) for a Source Code Policy. The policy requires every public agency to publish their custom-build software as Free Software for other public agencies as well as the general public to use, study, share and improve the software. The Source Code Policy is intended for efficient use of US taxpayers' money and reuse of existing custom-made software across the public sector. It is said to reduce vendor lock-in of the public sector, and decrease duplicate costs for the same code which in return will increase transparency of public agencies. The custom-build software will also be published to the general public either as public domain, or as Free Software so others can improve and reuse the software. Looking at the exceptions, it appears the list excludes a number of interesting things. But what's remarkable here is that, by default, publicly financed software will now be deemed as open-source. That's a win.

Comments

some of those interesting exceptions include:

[nimbius]

3. The release of the item would create an identifiable risk to the stability, security, or integrity of the agencyâ(TM)s systems or personnel

no biggie here, as youd have to identify the risk and make it meaningful.

4.The release of the item would compromise agency mission, programs, or operations

vague. you can expect this one to see a lot of abuse because the person who releases the code often isnt the author, and frequently wont be able to answer this question without worrying about their job.

5.The CIO believes it is in the national interest to exempt publicly releasing the work.

this. the CIO often doesnt know TCP from BBQ and will likely relegate the bulk of their source to this category by default so as to avoid lengthy congressional investigations and burdensome oversight.