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posted by martyb on Saturday March 17 2018, @11:39AM   Printer-friendly
from the information-wants-to-be-free dept.

The US Department of Defense is in the process of releasing all of its custom software under Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) licenses with a deadline of June for getting under way. Most of the barriers so far have been legal and policy ones, not technical.

As part of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, the Defense Department has until June to start moving much of its custom-developed software source code to a central repository and begin managing and licensing it via open source methods.

The mandate might prove daunting for an organization in which open source practices are relatively scarce, especially considering that, until recently, there was no established open source playbook for the federal government. That's begun to change, however, with the Office of Management and Budget's code.gov, and its DoD corollary, code.mil, run by the Defense Digital Service (DDS).

The fact that such software is actually under public domain inside the US adds a small twist to the release process.

From Federal News Radio : Amid congressional mandate to open source DoD's software code, Code.mil serves as guidepost.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by lentilla on Sunday March 18 2018, @06:43AM (2 children)

    by lentilla (1770) on Sunday March 18 2018, @06:43AM (#654367)

    Your argument (US citizens paid to write software, therefore only US citizens should be allowed to benefit) is rational, albeit short-sighted.

    We've all heard that metaphor about standing on the shoulders of giants [wikipedia.org], so I'd ask you to consider who are the giants here? It's not just the American taxpayer.

    May I suggest you broaden your horizon and consider that all of humanity are your brothers - upon whose father's shoulders have lifted you to your pleasant place - and that you have inherited a debt - not only to your neighbours, but to all your cousins as well.

    Not to detract from my main point regarding US citizens' membership in the human race... just remember we are talking about software here. Something that can be infinitely copied without loss to the originator. If it were food, then we might have to pick favourites.

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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday March 18 2018, @10:33AM (1 child)

    Thank you Karl Marx. I would have said RMS but you weren't quite communist enough in your silliness.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
    • (Score: 3, Touché) by lentilla on Sunday March 18 2018, @11:21AM

      by lentilla (1770) on Sunday March 18 2018, @11:21AM (#654428)

      I am but a work in progress :-)