The project manager, program manager, or other comparable official determines that it is in the Governments interest to do so, such as through the expectation of future enhancements by others. Conversely, if it widely-used, has many developers, and so on, the likelihood of review increases. REFERENCES: (a) AFI 33-210, "Air Force Certification and Accreditation (C&A) Q: When can the U.S. federal government or its contractors publicly release, as OSS, software developed with government funds? The FAR and DFARS specifically permit different agreements to be struck (within certain boundaries). As a result, it is difficult to develop software and be confident that it does not violate enforceable patents. Search and apply for the latest Hourly pay jobs in Randolph Air Force Base, TX. These include: If you are looking for smaller pieces of code to reuse, search engines specifically for code may be helpful. MEMORANDUM FOR ALL MAJCOMs/FOAs/DRUs . Do you have the materials (e.g., source code) and are all materials properly marked? BIG-IP logout page - Cyber The following questions discuss some specific cases. The information on this page does not constitute legal advice and any legal questions relating to specific situations should be referred to legal counsel. As more improvements are made, more people can use the product, creating more potential users as developers - like a snowball that gains mass as it rolls downhill. As with all commercial items, organizations must obey the terms of the commercial license, negotiate a different license if necessary, or not use the commercial item. Open standards also make it easier for OSS developers to create their projects, because the standard itself helps developers know what to do. Any company can easily review OSS to look for proprietary code that should not be there; there are even OSS tools that can find common code. PDF Administrative Change to AFI 38-206, Additional Duty Management Q: Is there a name for software whose source code is publicly available, but does not meet the definition of open source software? As with proprietary software, to reduce the risk of executing malicious code, potential users should consider the reputation of the supplier (the OSS project) and the experience of other users, prefer software with a large number of users, and ensure that they get the real software and not an imitator (e.g., from the main project site or a trusted distributor). The 2003 MITRE study, Use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in the U.S. Department of Defense, did suggest developing a Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) list, but such a list has not been developed. Depending on the contract and its interpretation, contractors may be required to get governmental permission to include commercial components in their deliverables; where this applies, this would be true for OSS components as well as proprietary components. Marines - (703) 432-1134, DSN 378. 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. Defense Health Agency | Health.mil - Military Health System The GPL and LGPL licenses specifically recommend that You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or school, if any, to sign a copyright disclaimer for the program, if necessary., and point to additional information. Questions about why the government - who represents the people - is not releasing software (that the people paid for) back to the people. Adobe Acrobat Reader. Maximize portability, and avoid requiring proprietary languages/libraries unnecessarily. Software might not infringe on a patent when it was released, yet the same software may later infringe on a patent if the patent was granted after the softwares release. 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. No. As noted above, OSS projects have a trusted repository that only certain developers (the trusted developers) can directly modify. Cybersecurity Facility-Related Control Systems (FRCS) - SERDP-ESTCP 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. The Free Software Foundation (FSF) interprets linking a GPL program with another program as creating a derivative work, and thus imposing this license term in such cases. DoD contractors who always ignore components because they are OSS, or because they have a particular OSS license they dont prefer, risk losing projects to more competitive bidders. AFCWWTS 2021 GUEST LIST Coming Soon. 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. If using acronyms and abbreviations, only utilize those identified on the approved Air Force Acronym and Abbreviation List, unless noted by an approved category. This Open Source Software FAQ was originally developed on Intellipedia, using a variety of web browsers including Mozilla Firefox. In such licenses, if you give someone a binary of the program, you are obligated to give them the source code (perhaps upon request) under the same terms. Examples of the former include Red Hat, Canonical, HP Enterprise, Oracle, IBM, SourceLabs, OpenLogic, and Carahsoft. 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. If it is a new project, be sure to remove barriers to entry for others to contribute to the project: OSS should be released using conventional formats that make it easy to install (for end-users) and easy to update (for potential co-developers). MEMORANDUM FOR ALL MAJCOMs/FOAs/DRUs . And of course, individual OSS projects often have security review processes or methods (such as Mozillas bounty system). Even if source code is necessary (e.g., for source code analyzers), adequate source code can often be regenerated by disassemblers and decompilers sufficiently to search for vulnerabilities. Choose a widely-used existing license; do not create a new license. Thankfully, such analyses has already been performed on the common OSS licenses, which tend to be mutually compatible. The Apache 2.0 license is compatible with the GPL version 3 license, but not the GPL version 2 license. Instead, the ADA prohibits government employees from accepting services that are not intended or agreed to be gratuitous, but were instead rendered in the hope that Congress will subsequently recognize a moral obligation to pay for the benefits conferred. Thus, to reduce the risk of executing malicious code, potential users should consider the reputation of the supplier and the experience of other users, prefer software with a large number of users, and ensure that they get the real software and not an imitator. Government Cloud Brings DoD Systems in the 21st Century. Guglielmo Marconi. The 88th Air Base Wing is the host organization for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. an Air Force community college and on 9 November 1971, General John D. Ryan, Air Force Chief of Staff, approved the establishment of the Community College of the Air Force. Is it COTS? Use of the DODIN APL allows DOD Components to purchase and operate systems over all DOD network infrastructures. It states that in 1913, the Attorney General developed an opinion (30 Op. In many cases, weakly protective licenses are used for common libraries, while strongly protective licenses are used for applications. In some cases, there are nationally strategic reasons the software should not be released to the public (e.g., it is classified). The first specific step towards the establishment of the United Nations was the Inter-Allied conference that led to the Declaration of St James's Palace on 12 June 1941. Yes. In contracts where this issue is important, you should examine the contract to find the specific definitions that are being used. DoDIN APL is managed by the APCO | disa.meade.ie.list.approved-products-certification-office@mail.mil. OSS licenses can be grouped into three main categories: Permissive, strongly protective, and weakly protective. The first meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA), the agency's governing body, took place on 24 July of that year. The following marking should be added to software source code when the government has unlimited rights due to the use of the DFARS 252.227-7014 contract: The U.S. Government has Unlimited Rights in this computer software pursuant to the clause at DFARS 252.227-7014. As the program becomes more capable, more users are attracted to using it. In the Intelligence Community (IC), the term open source typically refers to overt, publicly available sources (as opposed to covert or classified sources). This assessment is slated to conclude in the fourth quarter of this fiscal year (FY2022) and all updates to the DoDIN APL process are expected to be published and available by March 2023. There are many definitions for the term open standard. These definitions in U.S. law govern U.S. acquisition regulations, namely the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS). OSS-like development approaches within the government. OSS projects typically seek financial gain in the form of improvements. Air Force, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Marine Corps, and to participating agencies in-volved with supportability analysis sum-maries and provisioning/item selection functions by, or for, Department of Defense weapons systems, equipment, publications, software and hardware, training, training devices, and support equipment. The Air Force thinks it's finally found a way. Others do not like the term GOSS, because GOSS is not actually OSS, and they believe the term can be misleading. OSS programs can typically be simply downloaded and tried out, making it much easier for people to try it out and encouraging widespread use. Q: What is the legal basis of OSS licenses? U.S. law governing federal procurement U.S. Code Title 41, Section 103 defines commercial product as including a product, other than real property, that (A) is of a type customarily used by the general public or by nongovernmental entities for purposes other than governmental purposes; and (B) has been sold, leased, or licensed, or offered for sale, lease, or license, to the general public. A primary reason that this is low-probability is the publicity of the OSS source code itself (which almost invariably includes information about those who made specific changes). In effect, the malicious developer could lose many or all rights over their license-violating result, even rights they would normally have had! DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE HEADQUARTERS AIR FORCE SPACE COMMAND . Performance Statements are plain language and avoid using uncommon acronyms and abbreviations. Thus, they are all strategies for sharing the development and maintenance costs of software, potentially reducing its cost. . Choose a license that has passed legal reviews and is clearly accepted as an OSS license. 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 . See also DFARS subpart 227.70infringement claims, licenses, and assignments and 28 USC 1498. This memorandum only applies to Navy and Marine Corps commands, but may be a useful reference for others. All new software products must go through the systems change request approval process and complete a satisfactory risk assessment. Salesforce Government Cloud takes advantage of the same cloud-based CRM technology that has made Salesforce a household name among businesses large and small. Note that when government employees develop software as part of their official duties, it can be protected by copyright in other countries, but note that these can only be enforced outside the US. Section 6.C.3.a notes that the voluntary services provision is not new; it first appeared, in almost identical form, back in 1884. External Resources - DoD Cyber Exchange Commercial software (including OSS) that has widespread use often has lower risk, since there are often good reasons for its widespread use. The GPL version 2 and the GPL version 3 are in principle incompatible with each other, but in practice, most released OSS states that it is GPL version 2 or later or GPL version 3 or later; in these cases, version 3 is a common license and thus such software is compatible. Similarly, U.S. Code Title 41, Section 104 defines the term Commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) item; software is COTS if it is (a) a commercial product, (b) sold in substantial quantities in the commercial marketplace, and (c) is offered to the Federal Government, without modification, in the same form in which it is sold in the commercial marketplace. U.S. law governing federal procurement U.S. Code Title 41, Chapter 7, Section 103 defines commercial product as a product, other than real property, that- (A) is of a type customarily used by the general public or by nongovernmental entities for purposes other than governmental purposes; and (B) has been sold, leased, or licensed, or offered for sale, lease, or license, to the general public . Note that enforcing such separation has many other advantages as well. Choosing between the various options - particularly between permissive, weakly protective, and strongly protective options - is perhaps the most difficult, because this selection depends on your goals, and there are many opinions on which licenses are most appropriate for different circumstances. Where possible, it may be better to divide such components into smaller components in a way that avoids this issue. 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. Choose a license that is recognized as an Open Source Software license by the Open Source Initiative (OSI), a Free Software license by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), and is acceptable to widely-used Linux distributions (such as being a good license for Fedora). Acquisition Common Portal Environment. 1.1.3. how to ensure the interoperability of systems; how to build systems that are manageable. When considering any software (OSS or proprietary), look for evidence that the risk of unlawful release is low. Airtime Hourly PayThe Federal Salary Council determines the pay gap These lists apply to all NSA/CSS elements, contractors, and personnel, and pertains to all IS storage devices that they use. 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. As noted in the Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO, three conditions reduce the risks from unintentional vulnerabilities in OSS: The use of any commercially-available software, be it proprietary or OSS, creates the risk of executing malicious code embedded in the software. PITTSFORD, N.Y., June 8, 2021 . Government Approved Drones U.S. DoD Lists Blue sUAS - DRONELIFE Control enhancement CM-7(8) states that an organization must prohibit the use of binary or machine-executable code from sources with limited or no warranty or without the provision of source code. That said, this does not mean that all OSS is superior to all proprietary software in all cases by all measures. Of them, 40 Airmen voluntarily left the service and 14 officers retired, according to Undersecretary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz Jones at a House Armed Services Committee hearing Feb. 28. Q: What additional material is available on OSS in the government or DoD? Most commercial software (including OSS) is not designed for such purposes. 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. Delivers the latest news from each branch of the U.S . when it implements novel functionality which is not already available to the public, and which significantly improves DoD mission outcomes or business processes. What programs are already in widespread use? In many cases, yes, but this depends on the specific contract and circumstances. The program available to the public may improve over time, through contributions not paid for by the U.S. government. Q: How can I find open source software that meets my specific needs? An OSS implementation can be read and modified by anyone; such implementations can quickly become a working reference model (a sample implementation or an executable specification) that demonstrates what the specification means (clarifying the specification) and demonstrating how to actually implement it. . In this case, the government has the unenviable choice of (1) spending possibly large sums to switch to the new project (which would typically have a radically different interface and goals), or (2) continuing to use the government-unique custom solution, which typically becomes obsolete and leaves the U.S. systems far less capable that others (including those of U.S. adversaries). Typically enforcement actions are based on copyright violations, and only copyright holders can raise a copyright claim in U.S. court. REFERENCES: (a) AFI 33-210, "Air Force Certification and Accreditation (C . OSS implementations can help rapidly increase adoption/use of the open standard. 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. Air Force Abbreviations The lack of money changing hands in open source licensing should not be presumed to mean that there is no economic consideration, however. Software/hardware for which the implementation, proofs of its properties, and all required tools are released under an OSS license are termed open proofs(see the open proofs website for more information). Using industry OSS project hosting services makes it easier to collaborate with other parties outside the U.S. DoD or U.S. government. This process provides a single, consolidated list of products that have met cybersecurity and interoperation certification requirements. In many cases, yes, but this depends on the specific contract and circumstances. Use a widely-used existing license. Some more military-specific OSS programs created-by or used in the military include: One approach is to use a general-purpose search engine (such as Google) and type in your key functional requirements. The cases are too complicated to summarize here, other than to say that the GPLv2 was clearly regarded as enforceable by the courts. Q: How do GOTS, Proprietary COTS, and OSS COTS compare? Indeed, vulnerability databases such as CVE make it clear that merely hiding source code does not counter attacks: Hiding source code does inhibit the ability of third parties to respond to vulnerabilities (because changing software is more difficult without the source code), but this is obviously not a security advantage. 75 Years of Dedicated Service. The resulting joint work as a whole is protected by the copyrights of the non-government authors and may be released according to the terms of the original open-source license. Special Series. The DoDIN APL is managed by the Approved Products Certification Office (APCO). Again, if this is the case, then the contractor cannot release the software as OSS without permission, because the contractor doesnt own the copyright. Services that are intended and agreed to be gratuitous do not conflict with this statute. There are many alternative clauses in the FAR and DFARS, and specific contracts can (and often do) have different agreements on who has which rights to software developed under a government contract. First, get approval to publicly release the software. Estimating the Total Development Cost of a Linux Distribution estimates that the Fedora 9 Linux distribution, which contains over 5,000 software packages, represents about $10.8 billion of development effort in 2008 dollars. 2019 Approved Software Developers of Paper 2D Forms (PDF 47.33 KB) Final as of April 2, 2020. 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. The Air Force will conduct its next "BRAVO" hackathon in March, and any U.S. citizen may apply. In Wallace vs. FSF, Judge Daniel Tinder stated that the GPL encourages, rather than discourages, free competition and the distribution of computer operating systems and found no anti-trust issues with the GPL. OSS COTS is especially appropriate when there is an existing OSS COTS product that meets the need, or one can be developed and supported by a wide range of users/co-developers. This is often done when the deliverable is a software application; instead of including commercially-available components such as the operating system or database system as part of the deliverable, the deliverable could simply state what it requires. A component of Air University and Air Education and Training Command, AFIT is committed to providing defense-focused graduate and professional continuing education and research to sustain the technological . If some portion of the software is protected by copyright, then the combined software work can be released under a copyright license. For example, software that can only be used for government purposes is not OSS, since it cannot be used for any purpose. Where it is unclear, make it clear what the source or source code means. The following organizations examine licenses; licenses should pass at least the first two industry review processes, and preferably all of them, else they have a greatly heightened risk of not being an open source software license: In practice, nearly all open source software is released under one of a very few licenses that are known to meet this definition. Similarly, delaying a components OSS release too long may doom it, if another OSS component is released first. As with all commercial items, the DoD must comply with the items license when using the item. It also provides the latest updates and changes to policy from Air Force senior leadership and the Uniform Board. They can obtain this by receiving certain authorization clauses in their contracts. Bases. Obviously, contractors cannot release anything (including software) to the public if it is classified. Cisco Systems, Inc. 170 West Tasman Dr. San Jose, CA 95134-1706 USA. However, the government can release software as OSS when it has unlimited rights to that software. What contract applies, what are its terms, and what decisions have been made? The list consists of 21 equipment categories divided into categories, sub-categories and then . When examining a specific OSS project, look for evidence that review (both by humans and tools) does take place. LenelS2 OnGuard and Milestone XProtect jointly added to U.S. Air Force An agency that failed to consider open source software, and instead only considered proprietary software, would fail to comply with these laws, because it would unjustifiably exclude a significant part of the commercial market. Do you have permission to release to the public (classification, distribution statements, export controls)? New York ANG supports Canadian arctic exercise. By U.S. Cybercom Command Public Affairs | Aug. 12, 2022. However, the required FAR Clause 52.212-4(d) establishes that This contract is subject to the Contract Disputes Act of 1978, as amended (41 U.S.C. Ipamorelin. 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. In some cases a DoD contractor may be required to transfer copyright to the government for works produced under contract (see DFARS 252.227-7020). Senior leaders across DoD see bridging the tactical edge and embedding resilience to scale as key issues moving forward. This is particularly the case where future modifications by the U.S. government may be necessary, since OSS by definition permits modification. It is impossible to completely eliminate all risks; instead, focus on reducing risks to acceptable levels. OSS options should be evaluated in principle the same way you would evaluate any option, considering need, cost, and so on. Air Force Approved Software List? : r/AirForce - Reddit (4) Waivers for non-FDA approved medications will not be considered. 10 USC 2377 requires that the head of an agency shall ensure that procurement officials in that agency, to the maximum extent practicable: Similarly, it requires preliminary market research to determine whether there are commercial services or commercial products or, to the extent that commercial products suitable to meet the agencys needs are not available, nondevelopmental items other than commercial items available that (A) meet the agencys requirements; (B) could be modified to meet the agencys requirements; or (C) could meet the agencys requirements if those requirements were modified to a reasonable extent. This market research should occur before developing new specifications for a procurement by that agency; and before soliciting bids or proposals for a contract in excess of the simplified acquisition threshold.. 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. Q: What are some military-specific open source software programs? 2021 USAF & USSF Almanac: Glossary of Acronyms & Abbreviations An alternative is to not include the OSS component in the deliverable, but simply depend on it, as long as that is acceptable to the government. The real challenge is one of education - some developers incorrectly believe that just because something is free to download, it can be merged or changed without restriction.
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