OOC: This is draft #4. Changes from draft #3 include the rephrasing of the last regulatory clause to shift its focus away from allowing member nations to ban individual pieces of FOSS to punishing those who use it in violation of international law, removing the ability of members to maintain current restrictions on FOSS by declaring individual pieces of FOSS illegal.
CURRENT DRAFT (#4):
The General Assembly,
Defining Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) as unproprietary software which anyone is free to use, copy, study, and change in any way, except for purposes illegal under (inter)national law,
Recognizing that many integral components of everyday life, including, but not limited to, digital stores of information and various forms of telecommunications, are at least partially dependent on FOSS,
Acknowledging that without FOSS, many of the above constituents of modern life may never have come about,
Concerned that such an acknowledgment does not go nearly far enough to encourage and repay developers and other supporters of FOSS, protect their ability to freely contribute to FOSS, or protect the ability of others to use and otherwise perform actions with/to FOSS,
Hereby:
- Prohibits member nations from having or enforcing laws which criminalize or place other unreasonable restrictions, de jure or de facto, (on) FOSS or related activities as a whole,
- Requires member nations with copyrights to allow FOSS copyright holders to license without restrictions the use, distribution, modification, etc. of their FOSS to all individuals and entities or release their FOSS into the public domain, and all member nations to recognize the right of individuals to, for purposes that do not violate remaining (inter)national law:
- access any and all FOSS,
- run FOSS as they wish, on computer systems where they are permitted to,
- study and modify FOSS,
- distribute original and modified copies of FOSS, and
- create FOSS, and
- Affirms the right of member nations to punish individuals and entities for utilizing FOSS to commit or facilitate activities illegal under remaining (inter)national law.