FOSS takes precedence in Italy

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At the end of August I wrote a short post about an important reform that modified the rules for software adoption within the Italian public administration.

This morning a new law (commonly known as "Agenda digitale italiana") has been approved and it adds a further amendment to Article 68 of the Codice dell'amministrazione digitale. Now Italian public administrations could select between six options (and not five, as it was in the previous version):

  • develop a solution internally
  • reuse a solution developed internally or by another public administration
  • adopt an free/open source solution
  • use a cloud computing service
  • obtain a proprietary license of use
  • a combination of the above.

Now cloud computing is a new feature. And it takes priority over the proprietary solution.

By the way, also the rest of the article is quite different and more detailed. Paragraph 1bis and 1ter has been added. Paragraph 1bis describes the principles governing the comparative analysis that every public administration has to do before choosing one of these 6 options. And paragraph 1ter has modified the most interesting part of the previous version of Article 68. Now it says:

In the event that the comparative analysis of technical and economic aspects, according to the criteria described in paragraph 1-bis, demonstrates the impossibility to adopt an already available solution [option B], or a free/open source solution [option C] (adapted to the needs to be met) the acquisition of proprietary software products is allowed.

Originally posted on Simone Aliprandi's personal blog. Reposted under Creative Commons.

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Simon has a PhD in Information Society and is a lawyer, active in consulting, coaching and in researching the field of copyright and ICT law. He has been leading the Copyleft-italia.it Project since 2005.

3 Comments

Isn't cloud-based solution just the same as proprietary software? If you don't own the cloud service yourself and it isn't free software (as in freedom) then just as with proprietary software you still don't have the 4 freedoms and someone else has control over you computing and not you.

Italy is the country of unapplied laws.
The "Agenda Digitale" will be applied when pigs will learn to fly.

I would have made more clear the differentiation between free software and "free solutions". What happens if, e.g., Microsoft decides to offer a server solution for free to an administration and this forces all people to _buy_ a microsoft solution to access the services offered by that administration? The solution is for free for the administration but becomes a cage for the peple.
God, save me from ignorance...

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