The United States Air Force operates a service called Iron Bank, which is the DoD Enterprise repository of hardened software containers, many of which are based on open source products. In most cases, contributors to OSS projects intend for their contributions to be gratuitous, and provide them for all (not just for the Federal government), clearly distinguishing such OSS contributions from the voluntary services that the ADA was designed to prevent. The U.S. government can often directly combine GPL and proprietary, classified, or export-controlled software into a single program arbitrarily, as long as the result is never conveyed outside the U.S. government. Thus, components that have the potential to (eventually) support many users are more likely to succeed. This strengthens evaluations by focusing on technology specific security requirements. Examine if it is truly community-developed - or if there are only a very few developers. Elite RHVAC. Software licensed under the GPL can be mixed with software released under other licenses, and mixed with classified or export-controlled software, but only under conditions that do not violate any license. There are valid business reasons, unrelated to security, that may lead a commercial company selling proprietary software to choose to hide source code (e.g., to reduce the risk of copyright infringement or the revelation of trade secrets). Look at the Numbers! In some cases, there are nationally strategic reasons the software should not be released to the public (e.g., it is classified). An Airman at the 616th Operations Center empowered his fellow service members by organizing a professional development seminar for his unit. Is it COTS? If using acronyms and abbreviations, only utilize those identified on the approved Air Force Acronym and Abbreviation List, unless noted by an approved category. can be competed, and the cost of some improvements may be borne by other users of the software. The government is not the copyright holder in such cases, but the government can still enforce its rights. Once software exists, all costs are due to maintenance and support of software. This is not uncommon. Each product must be examined on its own merits. Note, however, that this risk has little to do with OSS, but is instead rooted in the risks of U.S. patent infringement for all software, and the patent indemnification clauses in their contract. Look at the Numbers! AOD-9604. As noted in Technical Data and Computer Software: A Guide to Rights and Responsibilities Under Federal Contracts, Grants and Cooperative Agreements by the Council on Governmental Relations (COGR), This unlimited license enables the government to act on its own behalf and to authorize others to do the same things that it can do, thus giving the government essentially the same rights as the copyright owner. In short, once the government has unlimited rights, it has essentially the same rights as a copyright holder, and can then use those rights to release that software under a variety of conditions (including an open source software license), because it has the use and modify the software at will, and has the right to authorize others to do so. OSS licenses and projects clearly approve of commercial support. References to specific products or organizations are for information only, and do not constitute an endorsement of the product/company. There are many alternative clauses in the FAR and DFARS, and specific contracts can (and often do) have different specific agreements on who has which rights to software developed under a government contract. The NASA FAR Supplement (NFS) 1852.227-14 gives NASA the right, under typical conditions, to demand that a contractor assert copyright and then assign the copyright to the government, which would again give the government the right to release the software as open source software. What is more, the supplier may choose to abandon the product; source-code escrow can reduce these risks somewhat, but in these cases the software becomes GOTS with its attendant costs. Units. The term has primarily been used to reflect the free release of information about the hardware design, such as schematics, bill of materials and PCB layout data, or its representation in a hardware description language (HDL), often with the use of open source software to drive the hardware. Other laws must still be obeyed. A U.S. Air Force A-10 receives maintenance at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, May 29, 2020. Maximize portability, and avoid requiring proprietary languages/libraries unnecessarily. The example of Borlands InterBase/Firebird is instructive. . Lock-in tends to raise costs substantially, reduces long-term value (including functionality, innovation, and reliability), and can become a serious security problem (since the supplier has little incentive to provide a secure product and to quickly fix problems found later). Proprietary COTS is especially appropriate when there is an existing proprietary COTS product that meets the need. The good news is that, by definition, OSS provides its source code, enabling a more informed evaluation than is typically available for other kinds of COTS products. It states that in 1913, the Attorney General developed an opinion (30 Op. OTD is an approach to software/system development in which developers (in multiple organizations) collaboratively develop and maintain software or a system in a decentralized fashion. (2) Medications not on this list, singly or in combination, require review by AFMSA/SG3/5PF (rated officers) and MAJCOM/SG (non-rated personnel). (Note that such software would often be classifed.). Q: Is there a large risk to DoD contractors that widely-used OSS violates enforceable software patents? Classified information may not be released to the public without special authorization to do so. Factors that greatly reduce this risk include: Typically not, though the risk varies depending on their contract and specific circumstance. Again, if this is the case, then the contractor cannot release the software as OSS without permission, because the contractor doesnt own the copyright. DFARS 252.227-7014 specifically defines commercial computer software in a way that includes nearly all OSS, and defines noncommercial computer software as software that does not qualify as commercial computer software. I agree to abide by software copyrights and to comply with the terms of all licenses. The government normally gets unlimited rights in software when that software is created in the performance of a contract with government funds. Common licenses for each type are: - Permissive: MIT, BSD-new, Apache 2.0 - Weakly protective: LGPL (version 2 or 3) - Strongly protective: GPL (version 2 or 3). This might occur, for example, if the government originally only had Government Purpose Rights (GPR), but later the government received unlimited rights and released the software as OSS. If the government modifies existing OSS, but fails to release those improvements back to the main OSS project, it risks: Similarly, if the government develops new software but does not release it as OSS, it risks: Clearly, classified software cannot be released back to the public as open source software. No, OSS is developed by a wide variety of software developers, and the average developer is quite experienced. This memorandum surveys U.S. economic sanctions and anti-money laundering ("AML") developments and trends in 2022 and provides an outlook for 2023. The Air Force Institute of Technology, or AFIT, is the Air Force's graduate school of engineering and management as well as its institution for technical professional continuing education. For example, trademarks and certification marks can be used to differentiate one version of OSS from others, e.g., to designate certain releases as an official version. If such software includes third-party components that were not produced in performace of that contract, the contractor is generally responsible for acquiring those components with acceptable licenses that premit the government to use that software. 923, is in 31 U.S.C. Note also that merely being developed for the government is no guarantee that there is no malicious embedded code. Government employees may also modify existing open source software. The certification affirms that the Air Force OTI is authorized to use ASTi's products, which now appear in the OTI Evaluated/Approved Products List (OTI E/APL). By default, the government has the necessary rights if it does not permit the contractor to assert copyright, but it loses those rights if the government permits the contractor to assert copyright. Navy - 1-877-418-6824. Q: Why is it important to understand that open source software is commercial software? The Air Force's program comes with a slight caveat: it's actually called Bring Your Own Approved Device (BYOAD); airmen won't be able to . In some other cases, the government lacks the rights to release the software to the public, e.g., the government may only have Government Purpose Rights (GPR). As noted by the OSJTF definition for open systems, be sure to test such systems with more than one web browser (e.g., Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Firefox), to reduce the risk of vendor lock-in. At the subsequent meeting of the Inter-Allied Council . OSS is increasingly commercially developed and supported. OSS implementations can help create and keep open standards open. 1342, Limitation on voluntary services. For example, software that can only be used for government purposes is not OSS, since it cannot be used for any purpose. Specific patents can also be authorized using clause FAR 52.227-5 or via listed exceptions of FAR 52.227-3. An example of such software is Expect, which was developed and released by NIST as public domain software. For the DoD, the risks of failing to consider the use of OSS where appropriate are of increased cost, increased schedule, and/or reduced performance (including reduced innovation or security) to the DoD due to the failure to use the commercial software that best meets the needs (when that is the case). Public definitions include those of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF), the Digistan definition of open standard (based on the EIF), and Bruce Perens Open Standards: Principles and Practice. OTD includes both OSS and OGOTS/GOSS. Other open source software implementations of Unix interfaces include OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD, and Darwin. That said, other factors may be more important for a given circumstance. The 2003 MITRE study section 1.3.4 outlines several ways to legally mix GPL with proprietary or classified software: Often such separation can occur by separating information into data and a program that uses it, or by defining distinct layers. Users can get their software directly from the trusted repository, or get it through distributors who acquire it (and provide additional value such as integration with other components, testing, special configuration, support, and so on). Read More 616th OC Airmen empower each other. Even when the original source is necessary for in-depth analysis, making source code available to the public significantly aids defenders and not just attackers. Two-day supply of clothing. The purpose of Department of Defense Information Network Approved Products List (DODIN APL) is to maintain a single consolidated list of products that have completed Interoperability (IO) and Cybersecurity certification. It is difficult for software developers (OSS or not) to be confident that they have avoided software patent infringement in the United States, for a variety of reasons. If the contractor was required to transfer copyright to the government for works produced under contract (e.g., because the FAR 52.227-17 or DFARS 252.227-7020 clauses apply to it), then the government can release the software as open source software, because the government owns the copyright. Q: Does the DoD already use open source software? For additional information please contact: disa.meade.ie.list.approved-products-certification-office@mail.mil. In short, the ADAs limitation on voluntary services does not broadly forbid the government from working with organizations and people who identify themselves as volunteers, including those who develop OSS. DSEI 2021, ExCel, LONDON, UK - 14 September 2021 - Curtiss-Wright's Defense Solutions division (Bays 22-26 ExCeL Exhibition Centre), a trusted supplier of tactical data link (TDL) software and hardware solutions engineered to succeed, announced that it has received certification from . Yes. - The award authority will establish the maximum award nomination length (number of . The U.S. has granted a large number of software patents, making it difficult and costly to examine all of them. (Such terms might include open source software, but could also include other software). The Defense Information Systems Agency maintains the DOD Information Network (DODIN) Approved Products List (APL) process, as outlined in DOD Instruction 8100.04 on behalf of the Department of Defense. Again, these are examples, and not official endorsements of any particular product or supplier. That way, their improvements will be merged with the improvements of others, enabling them to use all improvements instead of only their own. These cases were eventually settled by the parties, but not before certain claims regarding the GPLv2 were decided. For example, the Government has public release rights when the software is developed by Government personnel, when the Government receives unlimited rights in software developed by a contractor at Government expense, or when pre-existing OSS is modified by or for the Government. Q: Is it more difficult to comply with OSS licenses than proprietary licenses? This is not a copyright license, it is the absence of a license. - White space on the right margin of a populated AF Form 1206 is both accepted and expected; white space will not be an indicator of quality. This memo is available at, The Open Technology Development Roadmap was released by the office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Advanced Systems and Concepts, on 7 Jun 2006. 2019 Approved Software Developers of Paper 2D Forms (PDF 47.33 KB) Final as of April 2, 2020. Here is an explanation of these categories, along with common licenses used in each category (see The Free-Libre / Open Source Software (FLOSS) License Slide): In general, legal analysis is required to determine if multiple programs, covered by different OSS licenses, can be legally combined into a single larger work. Under the same reasoning, the CBP determined that building an object file from source code performed a substantial transformation into a new article. However, this cost-sharing is done in a rather different way than in proprietary development. Such software does not normally undergo widespread public review, indeed, the source code is typically not provided to the public and there are often license clauses that attempt to inhibit review further (e.g., forbidding reverse engineering and/or forbidding the public disclosure of analysis results). Government Off-the-Shelf (GOTS), proprietary commercial off-the-shelf (COTS), and OSS COTS are all methods to enable reuse of software across multiple projects. 31 U.S.C. Q: Is there a standard marking for software where the government has unlimited rights? A certification mark is any word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination thereof owned by one party who certifies the goods and services of others when they meet certain standards. Air Force ROTC is offered at over 1,100 colleges and universities in the continental United States, Puerto Rico and Hawaii. Q: How do GOTS, Proprietary COTS, and OSS COTS compare? As explained in detail below, nearly all OSS is commercial computer software as defined in US law and the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement, and if it used unchanged (or with only minor changes), it is almost always COTS. DISA FREE HOME ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE (CAC REQ'D) STRATEGIC . Establish vetting process(es) before government will use updated versions (testing, etc.). The Department of Defense invests tens of thousands of dollars in training for its Service members. In some cases access is limited to portions of the government instead of the entire government. Where possible, software developed partly by government funds should broken into a set of smaller components at the lowest practicable level so the rules can be applied separately to each one. BSD TCP/IP suite - Provided the basis of the Internet, Greatly increased costs, due to the effort of self-maintaining its own version, Inability to use improvements (including security patches and innovations) by others, where it uses a non-standard version instead of the version being actively maintained, Greatly increased cost, due to having to bear the, Inability to use improvements (including security patches and innovations) by others, since they do not have the opportunity to aid in its development, Obsolescence due to the development and release of a competing commercial (e.g., OSS) project. As noted above, OSS projects have a trusted repository that only certain developers (the trusted developers) can directly modify. Q: What license should the government or contractor choose/select when releasing open source software? Spouse's information if you have one. Parties are innocent until proven guilty, so if there. (Free in Free software refers to freedom, not price.) Delivers the latest news from each branch of the U.S . It also risks reduced flexibility (including against cyberattack), since OSS permits arbitrary later modification by users in ways that some other license approaches do not. This eliminates future incompatibility and encourages future contributions by others. Since OSS licenses are quite generous, the only license-violating actions a developer is likely to try is to release software under a more stringent license and those will have little effect if they cannot be enforced in court. Whether or not this was intentional, it certainly had the same form as a malicious back door. Q: When a DoD contractor is developing a new system/software as a deliverable in a typical DoD contract, is it possible to include existing open source software? Yes, both the government and contractors may obtain and use trademarks, service marks, and/or certification marks for software, including OSS. The DoD is, of course, not the only user of OSS. If a legal method for using the GPL software for a particular application cannot be devised, and a different license cannot be negotiated, then the GPL-licensed component cannot be used for that particular purpose. By dominate, that means that when software is merged which have those pairs of licenses, the dominating license essentially governs the resulting combination because the dominating license essentially includes all the key terms of the other license. ), (See also GPL FAQ, Question Can the US Government release a program under the GNU GPL?). Q: Does the DoD use OSS for security functions? Font size: 0G: Zero Gravity: Rate it: 106 RQW: 106th Rescue Wing: Rate it: 121ARW: 121st Air Refueling Wing: Rate it: 129 RQW: 129th Rescue Wing: Rate it: 1TS: No.1 Transmitting Station: Rate it: 920RQG: 920th Rescue Group: Rate it: A: Air Force Training . Export control laws are often not specifically noted in OSS licenses, but nevertheless these laws also govern when and how software may be released. "Delivering a more lethal force requires the ability to evolve faster and be more adaptable . Relevant government authorities make it clear that the Antideficiency Act (ADA) does not generally prohibit the use of OSS due to limitations on voluntary services. The regulation is available at. Military orders. Even if OSS has no cost to download, there is still a cost for OSS due to installation, support, and so on (whether done in-house or through external organizations). Adtek Acculoads. The GTG-F is a collection of web-based applications supporting the continuing evolution of the Department of Defense (DoD) Information Technology Standards. Commercial support can either be through companies with specialize in OSS support (in general or for specific products), or through contractors who specialize in supporting customers and provide the OSS support as part of a larger service. Most commercial software (including OSS) is not designed for such purposes. In either case, it is important to understand that GOSS is typically not OSS, though GOSS may be a stepping stone towards later OSS release. There are two runways supporting an average of 47,000 aircraft operations . Open source software licenses grant more rights than proprietary software licenses, but they are still conditional licenses that require the user to obey certain terms. Atty Gen.51 (1913)) that has become the leading case construing 31 U.S.C. Government Cloud Brings DoD Systems in the 21st Century. The DoD already uses a wide variety of software licensed under the GPL. Open source software that has at least one non-governmental use, and is licensed to the public, is commercial software. In many cases, yes, but this depends on the specific contract and circumstances. If your contract has FAR clause 52.212-4 (which it is normally required to do), then choice of venue clauses in software licenses are undesirable, but the order of precedence clause (in the contract) means that the choice of venue clause (in the license) is superseded by the Contract Disputes Act. A service mark is "a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination thereof, that identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than goods. The GNU General Public License (GPL) is the most common OSS license; while you do not need to use the GPL, it is often unwise to choose a license incompatible with the majority of OSS. Search. What are good practices for use of OSS in a larger system? It is only when the OSS is modified that additional OSS terms come into play, depending on the OSS license. It would also remove the uniquely (OSS) ability to change infrastructure source code rapidly in response to new modes of cyberattack. You can support OSS either through a commercial organization, or you can self-support OSS; in either case, you can use community support as an aid. As far as I have heard, unless you are a programmer then you aren't getting any actual development software. Q: Do choice of venue clauses automatically disqualify OSS licences? Browse 817 acronyms and abbreviations related to the Air Force terminology and jargon. (3) Verbal waivers are NOT authorized. An Open Source Community can update the codebase, but they cannot patch your servers. The WHO was established on 7 April 1948. The key issue with both versions of the GPL is that, unlike most other OSS licenses, the GPL licenses require that a recipient of a binary (executable) must be able to demand and receive the source code of that program, and the recipient must also be able to propogate the work under that license. . Typically, obtaining rights granted by the license can only be obtained when the requestor agrees to certain conditions. Telestra provides Air Force simulators with . Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (NCAE-C), Public Key Infrastructure/Enabling (PKI/PKE), https://dl.dod.cyber.mil/wp-content/uploads/home/img/img1.jpg. By definition, open source software provides more rights to users than proprietary software (at least in terms of use, modification, and distribution). Application Mixing GPL can rely on other software to provide it with services, provided either that those services are either generic (e.g., operating system services) or have been explicitly exempted by the GPL software designer as non-GPL components. Adobe Acrobat Reader software is copyrighted software which gives users instant access to documents in their original form, independent of computer platform. The products listed below are evaluated against a NIAP-approved Protection Profile, which encompasses the security requirements and test activities suitable across the technology with no EAL assigned - hence the conformance claim is "PP". In addition, important open source software is typically supported by one or more commercial firms. If the goal is maximize the use of a technology or standard in a variety of different applications/implementations, including proprietary ones, permissive licenses may be especially useful. Whether or not this will occur depends on factors such as the number of potential users (more potential users makes this more likely), the existence of competing OSS programs (which may out-compete the newly released component), and how difficult it is to install/use. The CBP ruling points out that 19 U.S.C. Even if a commercial program did not originally have vulnerabilities, both proprietary and OSS program binaries can be modified (e.g., with a hex editor or virus) so that it includes malicious code. - AF Form 1206, Nomination for Award (2 Aug 17) remains the standard AF award nomination form. OSS options should be evaluated in principle the same way you would evaluate any option, considering need, cost, and so on. Support for OSS is often sold separately for OSS; in such cases, you must comply with the support terms for those uses to receive support, but these are typically the same kinds of terms that apply to proprietary software (and they tend to be simpler in practice). In most cases, yes. OTD depends on open standards and interfaces, open source software and designs, collaborative and distributed online tools, and technological agility. OSS can often be purchased (directly, or as a support contract), and such purchases often include some sort of indemnification. If it must work with other components, or is anticipated to work with other components, ensure that the license will permit those anticipated uses. Q: Can government employees contribute code to open source software projects? OGOTS/GOSS software is often not OSS; software is only OSS if it meets the definition of OSS.
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