A public discussion of the draft resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation "On conducting an experiment on granting the right to use programs for electronic computers belonging to the Russian Federation under an open license and creating conditions for the distribution of free software" has begun.
The experiment, which is scheduled to run from May 1, 2022 to April 30, 2024, will cover the following areas:
- Creation of a national repository intended for free publication and maintenance of source texts by individuals and legal entities without restrictions on national, territorial and other grounds (development of the previously voiced idea of ββcreating a domestic analogue of GitHub).
- Opening under an open license software, the exclusive right to which belongs to the Russian Federation, and granting the right to make changes, distribute and use this software by everyone, including for commercial purposes and regardless of territorial affiliation.
- Improving the legislation of the Russian Federation in terms of removing obstacles to the use of free software.
- Regulatory regulation and methodological support for the publication of free software.
The goals of the experiment are to introduce best practices for creating and developing software, improve the quality of state-owned software, optimize government spending by reusing program source codes, and increase the participation of domestic developers in the development of free software. Of the software products that will be opened during the experiment, reference is made to the typical data mart software and the cloud platform of public services developed by the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation. The code will be open except for the components that implement the functions of cryptographic information protection.
The Ministry of Digital Development, Telecommunications and Mass Media, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Cartography and the Russian Foundation for the Development of Information Technologies will take part in the experiment. Additionally, on a voluntary basis, the highest executive bodies of state power of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and other persons can join the experiment. The final list of participants in the experiment will be formed before June 1, 2022.
The code of state-owned programs will be published under the "Open State License" (version 1), which is close to the MIT license, but created with an eye to Russian law. Among the criteria mentioned in the decree that the license used to open the code must meet:
- Free distribution - the license must not impose any restrictions on the distribution of software (including the sale of copies and other types of distribution), must be free of charge (should not contain obligations to pay license or other fees);
- Availability of source code - the software must be provided with source code, or a simple mechanism for obtaining access to the source code of the software should be described;
- Possibility of modification - modification of the software, its source texts, their use in other programs for electronic computers and distribution of derivative programs on the same terms should be allowed;
- Integrity of the author's source code - even if it requires the immutability of the author's source code, the license must explicitly allow distribution of software created from modified source code;
- No discrimination of persons or groups of persons;
- Non-discrimination on the purpose of use - the license should not prohibit the use of software for certain purposes or in a certain field of activity;
- Full distribution - the rights associated with the software must be applicable to all users of the software without the need to enter into any additional agreements;
- No dependency on other software - the rights associated with the software must not depend on whether the software is included in any other software;
- No restrictions on other software - the license must not impose restrictions on other software distributed with the licensed software;
- Technology Neutrality - The license must not be associated with any particular technology or interface style.
Source: opennet.ru