The Government of the Russian Federation adopted a resolution "On conducting an experiment on granting the right to use programs for electronic computers, algorithms, databases and documentation for them, including the exclusive right to which belongs to the Russian Federation, under the terms of an open license and creating conditions for the use of open source software ".
The ruling prescribes:
- Creation of a national open source software repository;
- Placement in the repository of software created, including for budgetary funds, for reuse in other projects;
- Formation of a regulatory framework for the publication of open source software.
The goals of the initiative are to support the open source community, improve the quality of software for government agencies, reduce costs through code reuse, and create a collaborative environment free from sanctions risks.
At the first stage, the Ministry of Digital Development, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Russian Fund for the Development of Information Technologies, the Registration, Cadastre and Cartography Service, as well as, upon separate requests, executive authorities, state corporations, extra-budgetary forms and any legal and natural persons will be involved in the project. The final list of participants will be formed on June 1, 2023.
The work is scheduled to be completed by April 30, 2024. If the experiment is successful, in the future, under free licenses, they plan to publish most of the software developed for budget funds, with the exception of applications that are classified. Open source can be used to implement new projects.
For the publication of code developed for government agencies and state corporations, a separate license has been prepared, which takes into account the specifics of Russian legislation. The state open license is permissive (permissive) and meets the following criteria:
- 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