E-Petition in the UK: All publicly-funded software should be released under a Free Software licence
Via the LBW-mailinglist, via UK E-Petitions: A UK movement started an E-Petition which demands that publicly funded software should be released under a free software license.
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Open-IT-projects/#detail
Actually a nice idea, what about the same for other countries? Anyone else involved in this?
"Software written using public funds should have it's source code published under a distribution licence that has been declared Free by the Free Software Foundation, rather than remaining a closed secret.
This would allow for more of the public to benefit from the development of the software since the code would be available for anyone to use and improve. Furthermore, compatibility with other Free licences (such as the GPL) would promote rapid development and reduced costs through the reuse of existing code.
An open development model would also allow the public to be more informed of the progress and quality of these projects, which so frequently seem to end up severely over budget."
