Oregon Legislature to Consider Open Source Bill
Below is part of the summary for House Bill 2892: Requires state government to consider using open source
software when acquiring new software. Sets other requirements for
acquiring software.
A BILL FOR AN ACT
Relating to software acquisitions by state government.
(1) The Legislative Assembly finds that:
(a) The cost of obtaining software for the state's computer
systems has become a significant expense to the state;
(b) The personnel costs of maintaining the software on the
state's computers has also become a significant expense to the
state;
(c) It is necessary to the functioning of the state that
computer data owned by the state be permanently available to the
state throughout its useful life;
(d) To guarantee the succession and permanence of public data,
it is necessary that the state's accessibility to that data be
independent of the goodwill of the state's computer system
suppliers and the monopoly conditions imposed by these suppliers;
(e) It is in the public interest to ensure interoperability of
computer systems through the use of software and products that
promote open, platform-neutral standards;
(f) It is also in the public interest that the state be free,
to the greatest extent possible, of restrictions imposed by
parties outside the state's control on how, and for how long, the
state may use the software it has acquired; and
(g) It is not in the public interest and it is a violation of
the fundamental right to privacy for the state to use software
that, in addition to its stated function, also transmits data to,
or allows control and modification of its systems by, parties
outside of the state's control.
(2) The Legislative Assembly further finds that:
(a) The acquisition and widespread deployment of open source
software can significantly reduce the state's costs of obtaining
and maintaining software;
(b) Open source software guarantees that its encoding of data
is not tied to a single provider;
(c) Open source software ensures interoperability through
adherence to open, platform-neutral standards;
(d) Open source software contains no restrictions on how, or
for how long, it may be used; and
(e) Since open source software fully discloses its internal
operations, it can be audited, at any time and by anyone of the
state's choosing, for internal functions that are contrary to the
public's interests and rights.
(3) Therefore, it is in the public interest that the State of
Oregon consider using open source software in its public
computing functions.
7:52:57 AM 
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