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EU Open Source

The European Commission is Making its Software Open Source To Benefit Society (neowin.net) 24

The European Commission has announced that it's adopting new rules around open source software which will see it release software under open source licenses. From a report: The decision follows a Commission study that found investment in open source software leads on average to four times higher returns. There has also been a push for this type of action from the Public Money, Public Code campaign. If you're wondering what sort of code the EC could offer to the world, it gave two examples. First, there's its eSignature, a set of free standards, tools, and services that can speed up the creation and verification of electronic signatures that are legally valid inside the EU. Another example is LEOS (Legislation Editing Open Software) which is used to draft legal texts.
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The European Commission is Making its Software Open Source To Benefit Society

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  • Is this why Docusign stock just tanked?

  • by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Friday December 10, 2021 @11:57AM (#62066405)

    Today's challenge, Big Government versus Open Source.

    Will slashdot side with Big Government because they now support Open Source ideals? Or will they suddenly shit on Open Source because Big Government is involved?

    Read the comments to find out!

    • by sinij ( 911942 ) on Friday December 10, 2021 @12:15PM (#62066455)
      This comment exemplifies binary us vs. them thinking. When an entity you don't like does something good, the appropriate response is to praise the action. Such praise does not mean that you approve of other actions by the entity. It also doesn't mean that you now closely associated with the entity or endorsing it.

      Yes, the obvious has to be explained, because it is 2021.
    • Not to worry. After the next election, Microsoft will bribe (*cough*, *cough*), I mean lobby the government to switch back to renting software from Redmond's Finest.
      • Not to worry. After the next election, Microsoft will bribe (*cough*, *cough*), I mean lobby the government to switch back to renting software from Redmond's Finest.

        This is a misunderstanding. Look at Microsoft Edge. Microsoft is very happy for you to release your software under an "open source" license as long as they can then take it, add a little bit to it, and lock in their own users with it. Just as Google has been naive by using the BSD license with Chromium, so I expect Microsoft will concentrate on pushing the EU away from copyleft and hope to sell them back their own software later.

        It's not enough to just throw software over the wall and hope it sticks. Yo

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • Contrary to what some copyleft advocates seem to believe, those who choose to use the BSD license understand the choice they are making and they are okay with it. If Google's goal was for the maximum number of people to use Chromium, then a BSD style license was a good choice.

            Like everything in life, some of them do, some of them don't. For some of them, since it would be speculation about future events, there's no possible way for them to "understand" what they are doing. They only guess. Even after a few million years, there are still people that get surprised that when they pull out they still get a pregnancy.

            A "little bit" [windowslatest.com]?

            Hate to say it, but this exactly shows that Microsoft understands what Google doesn't and backs up my earlier point about Microsoft being completely happy to accept op

    • I think you wrote Big when you just meant US.
  • by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Friday December 10, 2021 @12:25PM (#62066507)

    It's bureaucratic, it's clunky, it's huge, it's uninspiring, it's technocratic, it's incredibly costly, half of it isn't really elected and none of it gives you a hard on. But I'm 100% sure deep down at heart, ultimately, the EU works for the benefit and protection of its European constituents, which is more than can be said of most world governments - including the US.

    • "half of it isn't really elected " - yeah, the administrators/civil service are never elected (as it should be, they just execute/administrate the laws created by the elected)
    • so yeah, it does. European countries can't compete against US and China. They end up getting bullied into submission.

      An excellent example of this is how the US has started trying to get the UK to privatize healthcare so that our private insurance companies can make money there. When the conversation came up post-Brexit there was talk that it was "unfair" for the UK to have a public health system because private healthcare can't "compete" along with vague threats of tariffs.

      pre-Brexit UK could threat
  • Does China support open source requirements of making modifications open source? Hahahahah.

  • Just tried to post a comment on Facebook containing the URL to the publiccode.eu campaign. I got an error saying that "Your message couldn't be sent because it includes content that other people on Facebook have reported as abusive." What??? Oh boy, somebody must really hate OpenSource!
    What is even more funny, is that after the above, now I can't use Facebook anymore because every page is covered by a generic error overlay saying "Sorry, Something Went Wrong" and which is comming back every time I close i

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