LocalFOSS

Teodoro Casiño, Philippino congressman for the Bayan Muna party, today released the second draft of his "FOSS Act", a bill aimed at entrenching Free and Open Source Software in the operations of the federal government.

Community reaction to the bill has been mixed. While some have lauded Casiño for his vision, others have expressed concerns over the wording of certain sections contained within the text of the bill as well as the insistance on open source software as opposed to open standards.

Section 8 of the bill also presents a problem for some within the community. As it is worded, it appears to give the government complete control over the source of any application it decides to use. This is in direct breach of most of the major Free and Open Source licenses, including the Gnu Public License.

SECTION 8. Right to Derivatives and the Control and Modification Software

In any circumstances, Government shall obtain full rights and control over derivatives, modifications and customizations of software that it uses or adopts.

Overall however the response from the community has been positive, with most recognising the need for such legislation in order to help grow the Philippino ICT sector.