Open Source Legal Issues v2

SSC issues version 2 of Open Source Licensing paper

The State Services Commission (SSC) today released an updated version of their briefing paper, A Guide to Legal Issues in using Open Source Software.

Laurence Millar, Deputy Commissioner Information and Communications Technologies, said the SSC received over 100 emails from the open source community about the first version of the paper, and traffic to the e-government website, www.e.govt.nz, saw a fivefold increase in the days following its release.

"After we had reviewed the feedback, some of which was quite comprehensive, we recognized the need to develop a new version that more accurately represented SSC's position on open source," Mr Millar said.

"We believe the updated paper is an improvement and takes into account the views we received. We would like to thank the New Zealand Open Source Society for their assistance during the revision process. Their members provided valuable feedback on the initial document.

"The whole process has led to an improved document and one that more accurately reflects SSC's support for the use of open source in New Zealand government," Mr Millar said.

SSC originally released the paper in March, 2006.