Swiss Federal Government Adopts Open Source Licensing for Its Software

Many governments around Europe have been trying to break free from the shackles of closed-source software by moving away from the various offerings by Big Tech, and other competing firms.

However, in a more wide-ranging move, Switzerland's government has implemented something truly unique that's rarely seen in today's Big Tech-dominated world.

Governments Around The World Need To Catch Up

a screenshot of a translated excerpt from the official draft for embag — A translated excerpt from the official draft for EMBAG

Short for EMBAG, the Federal Law on the Use of Electronic Means for the Fulfillment of Government Tasks was a landmark law passed back in 2023, which has recently been put into effect.

Under this, all public sector government agencies are required to disclose the source code of their software developed for/by them.

However, in cases where there might be conflicts with third-party rights, or security issues, the code may not be disclosed.

Moreover, under the same provisions of Article 9, there's also a mechanism for allowing such public agencies to offer additional services pertaining to maintenance, integration, infrastructure security, etc. for public benefit with appropriate payouts being made to cover such costs.

Dr. Matthias Stürmer, Head of the Institute for Public Sector Transformation at Bern University, is credited to being one of the loudest voices behind the need for such openness in the Swiss government.

During a conversation with Open Source Observatory, he added that:

Switzerland's new 'public money public code' law is a great opportunity for government, the IT industry and society.

All stakeholders benefit from this new regulation since the public sector can reduce vendor lock-in, companies can grow their digital business solutions, and taxpayers spend less on IT solutions and receive better services due to increased competition and innovation.

If you want to dive deeper into how EMBAG came to be, you can go through Dr. Stürmer's detailed blog, which is written in German. You can use your browser's translator to read it, or paste the contents into an online translation tool.

💬 Would you like your government to do the same? Let me know below!

Via: ZDNET

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The article was updated on 29th July to correct factual errors reported by readers and Dr. Matthias.

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