Introduction to Free Software - SELF | Sharing Knowledge about ...

© FUOC • P07/M2101/02709 95 Free Software
Free software offers an interesting choice, which the authorities responsible for
innovation policies in many administrations are gradually starting to consider
with care. Especially when the research is pre-competitive (most common in
the case of public funding), the fact that resulting programs are free allows
industry as a whole (and consequently society) to benefit enormously from the
public money spent on R+D in the software field. Where one company may
see a result that is impossible to sell, another may see a business opportunity.
This way, on the one hand, the results of research programs are maximised,
and on the other, competition between companies wishing to use the results
of a project increases, since all of them will compete on the basis of the same
programs resulting from the project.
This model is not new. To a great extent it is the one that has allowed the
Internet to develop. If public administrations demand that the results of rese-
arch carried out with its funds is distributed in the form of free software, it
would not be surprising for similar cases to appear, on different levels. Either
the outcome of that research will be poor or useless (in which case the way
of selecting funding projects needs to be reviewed), or the dynamic generated
by leaving them ready for any company to be able to convert them into a
product would allow simply unforeseeable developments.
6.3. Examples of legislative initiatives
In the following sections we look at some specific legislative initiatives rela-
ting to the use and promotion of free software by public administrations. Of
course, the list we provide does not intend to be exhaustive, and has focused
on the initiatives that have been pioneering in some way (even if they were
not finally approved). Interested readers can complete it by consulting "GrU-
LIC. Legislation regarding the use of free software by the State" [133], which
cites many more similar cases. Also, in one appendix (appendix D) we include
for illustrative purposes, the full text or the most relevant parts of several of
these initiatives.
6.3.1. Draft laws in France
In 1999 and 2000 in France two draft laws related to free software were presen-
ted, which were pioneers in a long series of legislative debates over the issue:
• Draft law of 1999-495, proposed by Laffitte, Trégouet and Cabanel,
was made available on Senate of the French Republic's web server in
October 1999. Following a process of public debate over the Internet
(http://www.senat.fr/consult/loglibre/index.htm) [102] which lasted two
months, the Draft was modified. The result was Draft Law number 2000-
117 (Laffitte, Trégouet and Cabanel, Proposition de Loi numéro 117, Se-
nate of the French Republic, 2000) [162], which advocated the obligatory
use of free software by the Administration, contemplating exceptions and
transition measures for cases where it was not yet technically possible, in