96% of public sector in France is using open source

Unixmen.com report that almost the entire public sector in France, 96 percent, is using open source, according to a  market survey. The most used applications are database management systems and content management systems.

A research firm, Markness, presented a summary of its report on the use of open source in France on 17 September in Paris. It is based on an on-line survey during in the summer months followed-up by interviews with 160 IT project directors, heads of procurement and other IT decision makers, half of which are employed in the private sector and the other half representing the public sector. Another fifty interviews were held with IT vendors.

Using open source requires firms and organisations to seek technical assistance and support, said 54 and 44 percent of the respondents. It also requires changes to their IT maintenance, said 38 percent. The research firm says that half of the respondents say that the current financial crisis is not a reason to switch to open source. However, to 39 percent this did make it more of an option. In 2011, open source will take up less than 20 percent of the IT budget of public sector institutes. Markness expects the French open source IT market to grow by more than 16 percent in 2011.

Software is owned not licensed

The software company Autodesk has failed in its bid to prevent the second-hand sale of its software. In a long-running legal battle it has not been able to convince a court that its software is merely licensed and not sold. Out-law.com report that

Autodesk claims that it sells only licences to use its software and that those who pay for it do not necessarily have the right to sell it on. It sued Timothy Vernor, who was selling legitimate copies of Autodesk software on eBay, for copyright infringement.

The US District Court for the Western District of Washington has backed Vernor, though, in his claim that he owned the software and had the right to sell it on.

The Court said that there were two cases to use as a precedent and that they clashed fundamentally. It had no choice, it said, but to follow the earlier precedent, which was a dispute over the ownership of prints of Hollywood films sold to film stars.

The Court did say, though, that Autodesk’s claims that Vernor’s actions were likely to result in the creation and sale of illegal copies of its AutoCAD software were not well founded.

“Autodesk’s claim that Mr. Vernor promotes piracy is unconvincing,” the ruling said. “Mr. Vernor’s sales of AutoCAD packages promote piracy no more so than Autodesk’s sales of the same packages. Piracy depends on the number of people willing to engage in piracy, and a pirate is presumably just as happy to unlawfully duplicate software purchased directly from Autodesk as he is to copy software purchased from a reseller like Mr. Vernor.”