As reported by professor Fabio Bravo (University of Bologna) on the website www.EUPL.it, the Italian “Code for a Digital Administration” (CAD for Codice dell Amministrazione Digitale) has strongly reinforced the obligation to consider open source solutions.
Law n° 134 of 7 August 2012 has modified Article 68 CAD.
Until to 11th August 2012, the public sector could select between 5 options:
a) Develop a solution internally
b) Reuse a solution developed internally
c) Obtain a proprietary licence of use
d) Obtain an open source licence
e) A combination of the above
As from the 12th August 2012, the rule is that option c) above is not allowed anymore by default: “free or open source software” is the new option c).
A new provision moderates the vanishing of the proprietary option:
Only when a technical and economical analysis demonstrates that it is not possible to obtain at a lower price an open source solution or to reuse a solution developed internally, then it is allowed to purchase a proprietary licence of use.
The technical and economical assessment criteria are defined by the Agency for Digital Italy, which may communicate advice at the stakeholders’ request.
More information (in Italian) on EUPL.it
Comments
The above mentioned Art. 68 CAD (Italian «Digital Administration» Code) has been recently modified by Art. 9 bis, Law Decree No. 179/2012, converted into Law No. 221/2012, dated 17.12.2012 (published in Italian Official Gazette 18.12.2012, Supplement Ordinary No. 208).
For more information, please, see EUPL.IT at these link:
- Original Version (in Italian):
- English Verion (Google Translate)