e-Government New Zealand: Open Source Legal Issues

“While the 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.

“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…”

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