The Italian open source advocacy group Associazione per il Software Libero is protesting two memoranda of understanding (MOU) signed this summer by the Italian government and Microsoft. The group last week published a public protest letter.

The association explains that over the past three months it has in vain tried to raise the issue with the minister of public administration and innovation, Renato Brunetta. "We now publish this letter to get his attention on the benefits of open source software."

The advocacy group writes is it worried about a three-year memorandum of understanding signed by Minister Brunetta with Microsoft to develop software solutions for schools. It also expresses doubts over a similar agreement with Microsoft for the modernisation of public administration document management systems.

"We are deeply concerned", the group writes, arguing that the Italian government is spending millions of euro on software licences and that Microsoft has been fined by the European Commission for abuse of its dominant market position. "As a minister you can not ignore that open source software offers a viable alternative."

Earlier letters sent by the group were not yet answered. The group has also filed a request for information on the MOUs using Italy's Freedom of Information act. The group's lawyer, Marco Ciurcina: "We want to verify that these memoranda will not stop public administrations from using open source, are not discriminating European companies that sell services based on open source software and are not damaging the interests of citizens."

The group expresses doubts over the agreement with Microsoft concerning document management. Italian public administrations could also be using the open source document management system Doqui, developed by the Piedmont Region, the city of Turin and the province of Turin. "Other public administrations are considering to use this."

Ciurinca: "Hindering the uptake of open source software by the public administrations harms our economy, makes the market less free and favours a small group of firms depriving our country of substantial tax revenue."

More information:

Associazione per il Software Libero public letter (in Italian)