LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Geoffrey D. Bennett <g@netcraft.com.au>
  To  : <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 16:52:45 +0930

Democrats introduce legislation to support Open Source Software

Hi all,

I'm told that the Hon. Ian Gilfillan MLC (Democrat spokesperson for
Science and the Information Economy) is introducing a Bill to support
Open Source Software today.

In a nutshell, the Bill (if successful) will require:

> 17A. (1) A public authority must, in making a decision about the
> procurement of computer software for its operations, have regard to
> the principle that, wherever practicable, a public authority should
> use open source software in preference to proprietary software.

I've put up his draft speech at http://www.linuxsa.org.au/oss-bill/
and put up the bill at
http://www.linuxsa.org.au/oss-bill/open-source-bill.pdf

For the Bill to move forward, it needs support from the Government or
the Opposition (or both!), so if you want to lobby your local member
of Parliament to support it, I think that would be a good thing.  Any
political-type people have any suggestions on doing this?  I gather
that you can find your local member of Parliament at:
http://www.seo.sa.gov.au/apps/news/?year=2002

Have fun,
-- 
Geoffrey D. Bennett, RHCE, RHCX               geoffrey@netcraft.com.au
Senior Systems Engineer           http://www.netcraft.com.au/geoffrey/
NetCraft Australia Pty Ltd           http://www.netcraft.com.au/linux/

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