Introduction

1 This guide was prepared by the State Services Commission (SSC) to assist New Zealand government agencies assess and mitigate the legal risks of using open source software.

2 Government agencies acquire open source software through a variety of channels, whether it be staff downloading open source code from the internet, or external developers providing software that includes open source components. While this use of open source software has many benefits, it brings with it a number of legal risks not posed by proprietary or commercial software. These include an increased risk of exposure to faults and intellectual property claims, and the risk of forced disclosure of confidential code.

3 There is no reason why agencies should not consider open source software on the same basis as commercial software. But agencies should base their decisions on the overall merits of the software concerned. This means weighing the unique legal risks of open source software together with the usual factors such as cost, functionality, interoperability and security.