Email Comment: Support for Open Source Licensing / Open by Default

[OMBPublicComments]

[Email Comment, received on 4/17/2016, at 7:37AM ET]

Dear Sir/Madam,

I would like to comment on your Open Source Software policy. I am not a US citizen, but given the USA's considerable presence in the technology sphere, the position adopted by the USA will have influence worldwide, so I hope you can accept this international comment.

My comment is fairly brief, as I do not have the experience of government necessary to comment on many of your questions.

Software produced by or for "the government" is, in a democracy, produced by or for the public. Therefore, the public should be granted whatever rights are necessary so that they can make use of software they have paid for. The most natural way of achieving this is for the software to be released under a 'free software' or 'open source' licence. As such I would urge you to adopt the "open source by default" policy.

In addition, there are strong practical reasons for governments to be run using free/open-source software. Citizens should be free to work with their government using software of their choosing, which is difficult or impossible if, for example, government services specify the use of proprietary software. A government, and indeed all users of software, should not be locked-in to one particular vendor for their software needs; it must maintain control over its own (and therefore its citizens') computing and data. These requirements are naturally met via free/open-source software, and a democratic government can demonstrate leadership in this regard by using, creating, and releasing free/open-source software.

Many thanks for driving this initiative, and for your time in considering these remarks.

Yours faithfully,
Ben North.