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Suing for Open Source

Open source software use by governments has a rocky history. Some governments have opted firmly for open source (and some of those have later reconsidered); others do everything that they can to avoid it. Now a group of free software advocates in Canada is challenging a lack of open source adoption by head-on attack: a lawsuit aimed at the procurement practices in Quebec.

Specifically, FACIL has filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court. At issue is not, directly, whether the Quebec government should be buying open source software. Rather, it's whether the practice of letting single-source contracts, for amounts running into the millions of dollars, for Microsoft software without opening the process to competitive bid is a violation of the applicable laws.

On the one hand, we'd certainly like to see open source given a fair shake during the procurement process. But on the other, it's hard to believe that this will actually work out as the advocates are hoping. My own experience with contracting and procurement has been that there are always ways to write a contract to limit it to a single bidder - if they can't specify Microsoft software, the purchasing agents can always specify compatibility with some obscure piece of Windows-only software.

FACIL, to their credit, appear to be pursuing a multi-pronged approach to encouraging free and open source software adoption. They sponsor plenty of educational events that should help demonstrate the benefits of free software. But in this particular case, they seem unlikely to get what they want.

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