Legal Policy
Introduction
- What is FOSS / OSS?
- FOSS stands for Free or Open Source Software. “Free Software” and “Open Source Software” though are the same, and so most commonly, people merely use the acronym OSS to refer to Free or Open Source Software. Thus, we will be using OSS or Open Source Software to refer to Free or Open Source Software throughout. OSS, basically speaking, allows developers, under a royalty-free license, to develop, extend or customize the software[1].
- Global interest in using OSS in government
- If peer adoption is a factor within your organization influencing whether or not to procure or develop open source, then the use of OSS in government globally will be of great interest. Europe, Canada
- Software Procurement Generally - Or, what this guide does not cover
- Legal issues of procurement have been traditionally studied with regards to buying “things” like computers, or materials.
- Legal issues regarding the procuring of open source software development or contributing open source software back to a commons are newer, and thus there has been less research done on these topics.
- Legal issues of procurement have been traditionally studied with regards to buying “things” like computers, or materials.
- Overall - it’s a different business model - but this business model has been successfully used in many government organizations to save money, leverage internal and local community skills and expertise, and offer high quality solutions for government IT needs.
- Some legal issues of procurement in a traditional “things” sense overlap with procurement of open source software, but that is not the focus of this guide. Thus, issues not covered in this guide include:
- contract drafting generally
- identifying and allocating risks generally
- advising on important clauses
- Total cost of ownership (TCO) calculations (note, there are some differences in this calculation for FOSS vs. proprietary, as described Simon Phipps in his article entitled “Open source procurement: Subscriptions” (accessible at http://opensource.com/life/11/3/open-source-procurement-subscriptions), but this topic is not part of the guide scope.
- Most recently: The UK has published a guide on TCO calculations for open source: Cabinet Office of the UK TCO things to consider v1.0
- Biased or loopholed procurement systems
- Incumbent Bias - “Incumbent vendors usually have learned about the specific needs of the agency, its peculiar requirements, and how to service idiosyncratic problems quickly. Thus, a vendor bias is often perceived to be an incumbent bias” [2]. This incumbent bias, when used in an exploitative way in the government information technology (IT) world, has been characterized as the “IT Cartel.”[3]
- Basic problems in procurement often occur with open source procurement as well such as:
- Integration of OSS into a procurement system that presumes software to have a cost or other “cost” presumptions that don’t directly apply to OSS. For example, the U.S. board of Elections has faced this problem. [4]
- Communication between procurement staff and management, service departments, and vendors. For example, it has been discussed that effective listening skills and attention to detail are important.[5] Further, the White House has a guide, suggested as reading by the Civic Commons community, on the typical communication issues with vendors.[6]
- Life Cycle Pricing - How to identify all costs and when they can occur for OSS. [7]
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Training of city staff: if city staff are not trained in OSS technologies, and if the city does a lot of their own enterprise support in-house, training of the staff is necessary before a new technology can be brought in. However, a city may try to train staff on different technologies, one such technology being an OSS database program, for ex. since it was a dependency of a 311 application the city wants to use.
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Government tends to follow a solution used in the past, when in doubt. Therefore, without having adequate communication between government and OSS vendors, its likely that a response to a Request for Proposal (RFP) that includes an OSS solution could get thrown out. While not in the scope of the present guide, Civic Commons is interested in building out its Wiki to include a section providing templates or standardized language for OSS vendors, which would allow them to respond to RFP’s, in such a way that would prevent them from getting thrown out.
- Sources of research & information for this guide:
- Personal interviews with various experts
- Materials publically available from organizational websites
- Scholarly journal articles
- Case law
Chapter 1 - Legal Issues and Best Practices With Procuring or Deploying FOSS In Your Organization
Chapter 2 - Legal Issues and Best Practices With Converting/Contributing In-House Developed Code into a Reusable FOSS Project
Licensing
Most often, the biggest barrier to releasing government code as open source is in choosing an open source license. The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) has written a Primer on legal issues around releasing open source generally (whether or not a government organization), with a focus on IP issues.[8]
Further, the Civic Commons Wiki has a checklist written by open source community expert Karl Fogel, on important tasks to complete before open sourcing code.[9] Some of the key items to cover from his article include:
- Make sure you own the code
- Reduce or eliminate proprietary dependencies
- Vet your application data
- Vet your code
- Document
- Choose an open source license and then apply it to your code.
As discussed in the SFLC guide referenced above, copyleft OSS licenes generally have more legal requirements to satisfy than permissive licenses. Some of the issues encountered with copyleft OSS licenses have been documented by expert David McGowan.[10] Some of the complications presented by copyleft licenses include:
- Requirements to make publicly available any changes to the code.
- License interoperability issues as it pertains to development issues (combination of multiple OSS components into one). The OSOR has provided guidance on FOSS license interoperability[11]
Chapter 3 - Legal Issues and Best Practices With Starting a New OSS Development Project In-House ————————————————————————————————
“At each step in a project, programmers face a choice: to do that step in a manner compatible with the future open-sourcing, or do it in a manner not compatible with the future open-sourcing. And every time they choose the latter, the project gets just a little bit harder to open source.” - Open source expert, Karl Fogel [30]
When most government organizations think of in-house development, they worry foremost about time management of the available development staff, and their level of training. However, before any in-house project begins, the project manager should outline a development strategy to keep development open from day one. This not only reduces the amount of work required later to release and reuse the code, but it also establishes a workflow from the beginning which leverages proven and reliable open source development tools to ensure a high level of quality and accountability in the software developed.
Project Management ——————
Perhaps the most difficult hurdle to overcome in starting an “open from day one” in-house development project within government is the public hosting and contribution towards such a project. Open source development is collaborative by definition, and so it requires use of a version control system, that is, a system which keeps track of changes made by each developer, and facilitates the reconciliation of any conflicting or competing code edits. Further, in conjunction with the version control systems, the code “repository” or the body of code in its entirety, is stored on a publicly accessible code hosting site.
Community sourcing model While the benefits of open source have been widely recognized by some government organizations, concerns over having greater control over public contributions to code have led to the community sourcing model. Some examples of successful community sourcing projects include Kuali[35] and Sakai [36]. The cost savings of open source can often be realized with community sourcing, while still ensuring control over developments and contributions to the code. However, community sourcing requires additional resources to manage the community, and the membership model. One of the experts that was interviewed for this guide, who had experience with the community sourcing model, noted that community sourcing is a good option for those types of software that may not have an immediate appeal for developers to work on voluntarily. That is, the software that is developed and sustainable via open source without community sourcing is typically only for solutions addressing problems which the developers themselves face, such as developer tool software. The kind of software that developers typically don’t enjoy coding as a hobby is better suited for a community development model.
Keeping in line with being “open from day one,” development teams may want to consider ahead of time, using the number of open standards available for various solutions. The Civic Commons Wiki has a section dedicated to the use of open standards, and is a great reference for guidance on this topic.[37]
Chapter 4 - Legal Issues Not Well Known, and Possible Solutions —————————————————————
While open source has been in use in government for decades, and many of the legal hurdles and procurement issues have by now been addressed or solved, there exists some issues around which, no general consensus has been made. Some solutions attempted by government, such as drafting custom OSS licenses to suit their individual organization, have not been as successful as hoped, and developers instead return to using the more popular and proven OSS licenses. Further, as government applications generally expand in scope to address issues of greater citizen participation and transparency, the public has greater exposure to the technologies in use in government.
How high liability coverage should be
In terms of dealing with unknown or unforeseen risk, most governments ensure that the extent of the liability coverage on their contracts with vendors is reasonably high. How high this liability coverage should be is not well known, and governments would greatly benefit from further studies on this topic.
Wish List:
Regardless of whether civil liabilities exist for government development or procurement of OSS, government attorneys and IT staff desire more efficiency around the procurement process. To this end, several of the government staff we interviewed expressed a desire for more standardization around contract language, and overall risk analysis of popular open source licenses.
Unknown Issues in Tort
Lawyers with the International Municipal Lawyers Association have considered that software could pose tortious injury - with just incorrect content. For example, in a guide on Social Media, the authors offer up the question “Does providing directions that are not complete or up to date resulting in injury a basis for a lawsuit?”[49]
Summary / Conclusion
Open source software has a place in government, and as many cities, states and Federal agencies have proven, the legal and procurement hurdles can be overcome to realize billions in dollars of costs savings. To the extent that its procurement and development confuse and disrupt the usual procurement processes, it should be noted that at least the Federal government has resolved this problem by mandating that OSS is classified as Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) software for procurement purposes.[50]
As discussed earlier in this guide regarding procurement contracts for open source, there has been some research done to collect standardized language for contracts, but to realize this wish list of community reviewed risk analysis and suggested contract language, governments will have to be more open as to their current practices. It can start with warming relations and improving communication between government IT staff and their legal counsel. Policy decision makers and those staff assigned to mitigate risk would benefit greatly from learning more about technology use in government in general, so that other risks, such as the risks of large development projects failing or going over budget, would be better understood as well.[51]
Appendix / References to Existing Legal Resource Wikis/Tools/printed knowledge bases
- Organizations researching legal procurement and IP issues with government technology reuse (submap link to be created here)
- OSU Open Source Lab (future interview material to be included here)
- Center for Strategic and International Studies
- Open Source Software Initiative
- Civic Commons
- Open Source for America
- LGov (document library of contracts. RFPs)
- Gov2.0 Best Practices (social media use)
- GovLoop
- Sunlight Foundation
- Digital Local Agenda
- ICMA Alliance for Innovation (Knowledge Network)
- Public Technology Institute
- Contract Commons
- EFF / Patent Busting Project
- Kuali
- OSOR.EU Legal Corner
- Software Freedom Law Center
- UC Berkeley Samuelson Law Clinic
- Transparency International USA
- Open Source Digital Voting Foundation’s - Trust the Vote Project (Open Source License Development)
- Department of Better Technology Startup firm dedicated to improving Government procurement, has a new tool called Screendoor for “making small-dollar competitive-bid procurements more efficient.”
- Acedemic Articles / Books
- U.S. / State Code
- Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act §401(d)
- Case law
- Notice requirement of GPL:
- ProCD, Inc. v. Zeidenberg, 86 F.3d 1447 (7th Cir. 1996) (shrinkwrap license);
- I.Lan, Inc. v. NetScout Serv. Level Corp., 183 F. Supp. 2d 328 (D. MA 2002) (click-through license).
- United States Court of Federal Claims - hears cases of Patent and Copyright infringement claims against the U.S. Government
- Notice requirement of GPL:
- Published Guides
- Chapter 13, Procurement - Opening Government Guide from the Transparency and Accountability Initiative
- NASPO Comparative Review of State IT Procurement Practices(September 2010)
- The Michigan Bar Association Journal article on Open Source Licensing
- Blogs / Online Web Articles
- InfoVegan - covering many topics, including informative posts on procurement issues facing government
- Free and Open Source Software Patents Blog
- The TTABlog
- Legal issues when deciding upon FOSS vs. Proprietary
- OpenSource.com Law Blog
- SPUR Article on San Francisco Procurement Problems
- OSS “SWOT” Analysis
- NASA IP Counsel on Open Source
- Examples of legal language/contracts/documents in use
- Warning language for prototypes, drafts, betas http://alpha.gov.uk/ (EXPERIMENTAL PROTOTYPE There may be errors, inconsistencies and inaccuracies.)
- DoD guidelines doc - http://onepeople.org/files/OTD-lessons-learned-military-FinalV1.pdf
- National Rural Transit Assistance Program’s “ProcurementPro” web based free procurement tool for including necessary clauses in an RFP for federally funded projects.
- Seminal and recent cases
- Patents
- Lodsys vs. 7 iOS developers
- Oracle vs. Google
- Red Hat and Novell vs. IP Innovation
- Government suits in Patent
- Arrivalstar S.A. et al. vs. U.S. - Suit alleging that the U.S.P.S’s “Track and Confirm” feature infringes on ArrivalStar owned method patents.
- Government suits in Copyright
- Government suits in Trademark
- Suits Regarding Open Source Policy
- Patents
- Guidance tech tools
- Creative Commons license chooser
- OSOR Open Source License Chooser
References
[1] For a formal definition of OSS, see Open Source Initiatives definition of open source http://www.opensource.org/docs/osd
[2] Procedural Rules and Procurement Regulations: Complexity Creates Trade-Offs, Shane Greenstein, Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Apr., 1993), pp. 159-180. http://jleo.oxfordjournals.org/content/9/1/159.extract
[3] Statement by Whitehouse CIO, Vivek Kundra regarding “IT Cartel” (incumbent bias). http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9218466/Outgoing_federal_CIO_warns_of_an_IT_cartel_
[4] Election Boards Voting System Procurement. http://wiki.trustthevote.org/index.php/Business_Models_for_Election_Boards%27_Adoption_of_Open_Source_Election_Technology
[5] Effective Listening Skills and Attention to detail. http://www.training-management.info/Procurement/Marketing.htm#X4
[6] Suggested paper on communication issues with vendors. http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/procurement/memo/Myth-Busting.pdf
[7] PHS Management Training - Procurement Training. http://www.training-management.info/Procurement/Cost-Price.htm#X2
[8] Software Freedom Law Center Primer on Legal Issues for Open Source Software Projects
[9] Checklist for Releasing Open Source
[10] Analysis of Issues caused by Gnu General Public License (GPL)
[12] Department of Justice Guide to the Freedom of Information Act (see page 33 for relevant portion)
[13] Google Group Post by Christopher Sean Morrison https://groups.google.com/group/mil-oss/browse_thread/thread/b69c0384180a95af?pli=1
[15] Google Group Post by David Wheeler https://groups.google.com/group/mil-oss/browse_thread/thread/b69c0384180a95af?pli=1
[16] Google Group Post by Christopher Sean Morrison https://groups.google.com/group/mil-oss/browse_thread/thread/b69c0384180a95af?pli=1
[17] http://www.justice.gov/oip/foia_updates/Vol_XV_4/foiaelectronic.htm
[18] http://www.justice.gov/oip/foia_updates/Vol_XV_4/foia4.htm
[22] Google Group Post by Christopher Sean Morrison https://groups.google.com/group/mil-oss/browse_thread/thread/b69c0384180a95af?pli=1
[23] FOIA Basics
[24] List of Public Records laws by State
[25] Direction Magazine’s Dec. 14, 2011 article on the Sierra Club vs. Orange County suit
[28] Levine, David S., The People’s Trade Secrets? (February 18, 2011). Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review, Forthcoming . Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1571436
[29] Daniel B. Goldman, (Trade) Secrets, Secrets Are No Fun—Especially When Disclosed Through FOIA Requests to Everyone, 3 SEVENTH CIRCUIT REV. 690 (2008), at http://www.kentlaw.edu/7cr/v3-2/goldman.pdf
[30] Be open from day one “Be Open from Day One, not Day N.” by Karl Fogel, January 27, 2011
[31] Civic Commons Wiki on Open Development Guidelines
[32] Managing an Open Source Software Development project (Department of Defense Guide)
[34] OSOR guidance on contributor agreements
[35] Kuali
[36] 1
[37] Use of Open Standards and Open Standards Policy
[38] Managing an Open Source Software Development project (Department of Defense Guide)
[39] Data Catalog / App Catalog Developer Contract Provisions
[40] UK Open Source & Open Data Licensing
[41] SFLC Publication: Killed by Code: Software Transparency in Implantable Medical Devices
[42] Social Media Defamation Issues
[43] http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/0262062461chap19.pdf
[44] Wikipedia entry on public domain software
[45] [http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CB0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rcmd.com%2Fgalleries%2Fwhite_papers%2Ffederal_government_contractors.pdf&ei=Gcm9TvmtHKLniAK7lNS5Aw&usg=AFQjCNHRHJ0pc2l58PYk3XGXizajnXLI2A RCM&D’s Brochure on Government Technologists’ need for insurance]
[49] Social Media Defamation Issues
[50] http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/oss-government-acquisitions.html