Greens Push For Open Source In Scotland

Scottish Green Party MSP Patrick Harvie has lodged a motion on Open Source in Parliament:

S2M-1921 Patrick Harvie: Open Source and Free Software

That the Parliament welcomes the findings of the Office of Government Commerce’s report following proof-of-concept trials of Open Source software; notes that the report concludes that Open Source software is a viable and credible alternative to proprietary software and that its use can generate significant savings in hardware and software costs and reduce licensing costs and hardware refresh requirements; notes the significant financial and environmental benefit that could arise from a policy of adopting Open Source software, including the GNU/Linux operating system; notes the long-term dangers for organisations in becoming locked into proprietary systems; further believes that the principles of free software and concepts such as Copyleft can help to protect important rights and freedoms for people in an increasingly digital age, and urges the Scottish Executive to develop a strategy for promoting the adoption of free software and Open Source wherever workable throughout the public sector and to ensure that all software developed with public funds is copylefted.

Supported by: Shiona Baird, Eleanor Scott, Mark Ballard, Chris Ballance, Mr Bruce McFee, Robin Harper, Stewart Stevenson, Mike Pringle, Donald Gorrie

Great stuff. Patrick is also seeking comments, suggestions and improvements on the motion - I’ll be dropping him a line about Creative Commons - and asks that folk who support it contact their MSP, which you can do via this page.

Thanks to Simon for the heads-up.

Posted at 6pm on 09/11/04 by Jack Mottram to the linux, politics category.
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