The advantages and the problems of migration to free software in state bodies and organizations
The development and adoption of software is one of the key elements driving information economy and the emergence of free software may have significant effects on IT industry and information society as a whole. The article focuses above all on the subject of legal regulation and use of open source software in public administrations. Taking into account the close connection between legal regulation and economy the article provides also a general analysis of economic impact of free software projects. The author aims to elucidate some of the main problems arising from the conflict of traditional property oriented copyright legislation and free software licenses as the legal framework of a novel form of collaborative production. The uncertainty in regulation prevents state bodies and organizations of Russian Federation from using free software in their activities, and the article concludes by emphasizing that it is necessary to fill the gaps in actual legislation and reconsider the doctrinal approaches to the matter of improvement of legal protection of the results of intellectual activity.