A. For the purposes of this section, "open source software" means software that guarantees the user of the software use of the software for any purpose, allows unrestricted access to the respective source code, enables the use of the internal mechanisms and arbitrary portions of the software with the ability to adapt them to the needs of the user, provides the freedom to make and distribute copies of the software, and guarantees the right to modify the software with the freedom to distribute modifications of the new resulting software under the same license as the original software. "Open standards" means specifications for the encoding and transfer of computer data that is free for all to implement and use in perpetuity, with no royalty or fee, has no restrictions on the use of data stored in the format, has no restrictions on the creation of software that stores, transmits, receives, or accesses data codified in such way, has a specification available for all to read, in a human-readable format, written in commonly accepted technical language, is documented, so that anyone can write software that can read and interpret the complete semantics of any data file stored in the data format, allows any file written in that format to be identified as adhering or not adhering to the format, and provides that any encryption or obfuscation algorithms are usable in a royalty-free, nondiscriminatory manner in perpetuity, and are documented so that anyone in possession of the appropriate encryption key or keys or other data necessary to recover the original data is able to write software to access the data. "Proprietary software" means software that does not fulfill all of the guarantees provided by open source software.

B. Prior to approving software acquisition requests, the purchasing entity shall consider whether proprietary or open source software offers the most cost-effective software solution for the agency, based on consideration of all associated acquisition, support, maintenance, and training costs.

C. Whenever possible the Chief Information Officer or purchasing entity shall avoid approving requests for the acquisition of products that do not comply with open standards for interoperability or data storage.

Added by Laws 2012, c. 106, § 6. Amended by Laws 2013, c. 358, § 29, eff. July 1, 2013. Renumbered from § 85.7h of Title 74 by Laws 2013, c. 358, § 35, eff. July 1, 2013.