Reuse of software with open source code and open licence

Guidelines for the acquisition and reuse of software for Public Administrations

The notified guidelines are adopted in implementation of Articles 68 and 69 of Legislative Decree No 82 of 7 March 2005 on the Digital Administrative Code, as amended (hereinafter CAD):

- in accordance with Article 68(1 ter), Chapter 2 addresses the procedures and criteria under which an administration is to conduct a comparative assessment as described in the aforementioned Article for determining software purchasing procedures;

- as stated in Article 69(2 bis), Chapter 3 identifies a platform for the publication of source code under an open license; it also describes the provided software documentation reused by administrations, as well as the technical procedures for its use.

The text contains three chapters including an introduction, software acquisition and reuse, and five annexes lettered A to E.

Annex A - Guide to publishing open source software: this is aimed at administrations that own software and want to release it as open source. The guide may be used by anyone responsible for carrying out an activity described therein: internal staff of the administration, in-house companies of the administration, suppliers of services identified by the administration.

Annex B - Guide to maintaining open source software: this is aimed at administrations that own software that has already been published as open source, on which they want to perform maintenance.

Annex C - Guide to open source licences: the purpose of this Annex is to give the reader a brief introduction to the different licences that can be adopted and to suggest the adoption of specific licence types. The advantage of limiting the number of user licences available on the software market is that it drastically simplifies integration, enabling the public administration to save money.

Annex D - Guide to the reuse of open source software: this is aimed at administrations looking to reuse software or to adopt and make modifications to an open source software from third parties.

Annex E -Table summarising the necessary elements of the decision-making process: this is to facilitate comparative assessment through a decision-making process for public administrations, which takes account of the indications given in CAD, Articles 68 and 69.