Source: whitehouse.govA “Free the Code” campaign launched by Open Source for America requesting a mandate on open source licensing on custom software developed for the federal government surpassed its first hurdle Monday.
A petition created on July 17 using the White House’s ‘We the People’ platform reached the 150-signature threshold, and is now publicly searchable on the whitehouse.gov website.
Petitioners now have 30 days to achieve 25,000 signatures in order to receive a response from White House officials.
“Free the Code is an initiative to start a national conversation on taxpayer investments in software and information technology,” said John Scott, president of Selection Pressure, LLC, and co-chair of Open Source for America’s steering committee in a press release. “Specifically, we’re interested in how publicly-funded software code developed by the government, which isn’t already covered by a proprietary license, should be made available to the wider public.”
