[Discuss] Govt Source Code Policy

[Rich Pieri]

On 4/7/2016 12:27 PM, Mike Small wrote:
> Ah, then I agree with you that that seems like overreach unless and
> until someone demonstrates rms's arguments are good enough to inform
> general law.

I have evidence that I believe strongly demonstrates that RMS's
arguments should not be used to inform general law.

The DoE added a rider on educational grants in 2008 (I believe). If
released to the public, software funded by DoE educational grant money
must be published with an Open Source Software (OSS) license or have
copyright transferred to the DoE for publication:

http://science.energy.gov/~/media/ascr/pdf/research/docs/Doe_lab_developed_software_policy.pdf

The DoE more recently have demonstrated a preference for CC BY because,
"requiring release under CC BY maximizes the public benefit of funding
dollars, and ensures the creator retains copyright and the option to
offer the work under other terms that benefit the particular business
model or mission"

http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/CCBY_9_3_2011.pdf

The terms "Free Software" and "GPL" do not appear anywhere in the rider,
nor do they appear in general DoE documentation regarding funded
software. Despite this, the corporate handout state, which is the core
of the pro-GPL rhetoric, has not come to pass.

-- 
Rich P.