Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#1

Post by bozho » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 12:47 PM UTC

Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source
medium.com

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#2

Post by lamarkia » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 1:13 PM UTC

It mentions "OpenOffice", which is now defunct.

In any case it is good. Future procurements will show how well the law is applied.

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#3

Post by venomsnake » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 1:23 PM UTC

lamarkia wrote: post #2

It mentions "OpenOffice", which is now defunct. In any case it is good. Future procurements will show how well the law is applied.

This is Bulgaria. We treat laws as something below "vague recommendations".

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#4

Post by chme » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 1:23 PM UTC

Would be nice if bigger nations like USA, UK/GB, Germany would adopt this policy and have to open source the exploits and root kits that where develop with tax payers money.

Open source XKeyscore, yay!

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#5

Post by breakingcups » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 1:30 PM UTC

This is very interesting, I wish more countries followed suit.

In my ideal fantasy world, at some point other countries might have a look at one of the open source projects of Bulgaria and collaborate when the goals align closely.

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#6

Post by stanislavb » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 1:30 PM UTC

"The fact that something is in the law doesn’t mean it’s a fact, though."..."companies will surely try to circumvent it."

Yeah, this is very well said. Most laws in Bulgaria are either not enforced or "avoidable" :)

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#7

Post by blahi » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 1:55 PM UTC

Every law passed by Bulgarian parliament serves only one purpose - to put pressure on somebody, so people in the shadows can get a slice.

edit: A new government agency is tasked with enforcing the law

Ah, I see now.

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#8

Post by bluetomcat » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 2:07 PM UTC

You wouldn't know the background motivating this decision unless you have been a frustrated user of the nearly non-functional software of Bulgarian state institutions.

Ludicrous amounts of money are paid by the government to a selected niche of companies for developing all kinds of useless websites which barely work under load and have abysmal implementations with blatant security holes. This law can act as a safeguard against such "epic failures", so that the taxpayers can be aware of what they are actually paying for. 300k euros for a static website? Let's hope it's over.

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#9

Post by emilecantin » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 2:23 PM UTC

> It means that whatever custom software the government procures will be visible and accessible to everyone. After all, it’s paid by tax-payers money and they should both be able to see it and benefit from it.

I've been thinking that way for a long time, nice to see I'm not alone. Let's hope other jurisdictions follow suit.

Re: Bulgaria Passes a Law Requiring Open Source

#10

Post by bluetomcat » Mon, Jul 04, 2016, 2:41 PM UTC

blahi wrote: post #7

Every law passed by Bulgarian parliament serves only one purpose - to put pressure on somebody, so people in the shadows can get a slice. edit: A new government agency is tasked with enforcing the law Ah, I see now.

The GERB party doesn't do any politics or strategic decisions in favour of the nation. Its sole purpose is to keep bureaucracy high and its favoured companies busy by distributing EU funds through "power channels". More bureaucracy means easy money for that same "elite".