this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2024
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"unless precluded by third-party rights or security concerns", so this bill does nothing
I imagine that the company would have the burden of proof that any of these criteria are fulfilled.
Third-party rights most likely refers to the use of third-party libraries, where the source code for those isn't open source, and therefore can't be disclosed, since they aren't part of the government contract. Security concerns are probably things along the line of "Making this code open source would disclose classified information about our military capabilities" and such.
Switzerland are very good bureaucracy and I trust that they know how to make policies that actually stick.
It is written like that, so that MS 365 still can be used. Some worker here go literally crazy, if they have to work with alternatives to MS 365..
This is not what the law is about. They can use closed sourced software just fine.
This is a law about software developed for the Schweiz government. If they needed a new CRM system or database system for medical records, it would be open source.
And they can use Outlook to inform everyone about it without problem.
While there might be some truth to that, I don't think MS 365 would qualify as "developed for the government."
Ah, i see.. The „Security“ is used for the digital ID that is coming. Sadly, the part about Security of the ID is closed source to be "secure". Someone has to teach them that security through # obscurity is no security…
It does one thing: make every contract have a clause specifically to combat this...
I still think a good chunk of the code will be visible. You can have all the code up to the point where you call the proprietary function. Obviously you won't get to see what's inside that function but you can guess. Also, a lot of proprietary libraries have that functionality really well documented.