Cooper Stevenson, one of the bill's main backers and a member of the Mid-Willamette Valley Linux Users Group, said the legislation isn't designed to give open-source an advantage over proprietary software, but merely to level the playing field. In the past, he said, governments were afraid to adopt open-source software because it wasn't necessarily ready for prime time in terms of user-friendliness and tech support. Now that it is, Stevenson and others want legislation that would require governments to include the software in their decision-making process -- and to justify their decision if they don't. "We've been watching the proprietary software vendors a long time, and we know what they're up to," Stevenson said. "It certainly doesn't seem they're interested in saving Oregon money or in Oregonians' privacy rights." The suggestions of the working group meeting on Wednesday are not binding, meaning that the committee can incorporate some or all of them into the bill or just ignore them if it wants to. If the bill makes it out of this committee, it would then move onto a Ways and Means Committee before both houses of the state legislature would get a chance to vote on it. Proponents are hoping that a success in Oregon could ignite similar movements across the country. Right now, legislatures in Texas and Oklahoma are also considering bills with open-source code components; Rhode Island also appears poised to do so. A movement to convince California lawmakers to adopt a similar bill never gained steam, partly because it mandated choosing open-source over proprietary software. Opponents of the movement to carve out open-source protections said they're not as worried about the Texas and Oklahoma efforts, which they expect will not survive. Instead, the groups are focusing their fire on the Oregon bill and on an open-source measure pending in a regional body in Belgium. "We're concerned about the precedential value of this," the ISC's Wendy said. "Other countries and (European Union) members might look to this as a model." The ISC also is trying to shape the implementation of a presidential decree in Andalusia, Spain, which not only encourages the adoption of open-source technology in education and government centres but also urges promotion among the general population. There's one thing upon which both sides can agree when it comes to open-source legislation: There's sure to be more of it. Already, regional governments in Pakistan and Brazil have adopted software favourable to open source. And similar measures are percolating worldwide. Choosing sides
Meanwhile, both sides in the debate are trying to beef up their stable of support. Backers of the Oregon bill say some well-known software companies have indicated interest in their movement, but so far are not ready to go public. Watching who sides with whom could be one of the most interesting sideshows of the debate. Although the bill-bashing ISC includes tech giants Intel and Cisco among its more than 220 members, some software bigwigs are noticeably absent from the list, including Oracle and IBM. Both companies are in a tricky political position in this case, because they have embraced both open-source and proprietary software. Meanwhile, the fight is sure to heat up. Michael Tiemann -- the chief technology officer of Linux vendor Red Hat who marched up San Francisco's Market Street last year in an ill-fated attempt to convince California lawmakers to sponsor an open-source bill -- said he'd like to see all 50 states adopt a bill that would let open source get its foot in the government's door. "Open source has often been disparaged by traditional proprietary software companies," said Tiemann, who added that his company is not funding any of the current efforts. "There's probably been some prejudice against open-source software that has to be remedied." He thinks the open-source bills could be as important for citizens as the voting-right bills passed as a result of pressure from the civil rights movement. "There are very few Americans who are not affected by software in some way, shape or form," he said.
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