A draft law, currently discussed in parliament in Bulgaria, will oblige all governmental institutions to use free software and open formats with their computer information systems within 2 years. The law addresses all state bodies, mayors of municipalities and regions, higher schools, medical establishments, non-profit legal entities as well as other bodies and entities that receive governmental funding. A permit of exception from this obligation can only be procured on a case-by-case basis, if no free software is available for a specific purpose.

In the Bulgarian definition, free software must allow for:

- Unlimited use of the software for all purposes; - Unlimited access to the source code; - Comprehensive check of its mechanisms of operation; - Use of internal mechanisms and of any arbitrary part of it, so that it can be adapted to the needs of the user; - Production and public distribution of its copies; - Modification and free distribution of changes as well as of the newly designed software under the same conditions as those of the original.

If adopted, the law would bring about a remarkable change of policy. Only a year ago, Minister of the State Administration Dimitar Kalchev triumphantly announced a new contract with Microsoft for the provision of software to the state administration. In total, in 3 years Bulgaria would have to pay USD 8,400,000 (EUR 7,862,245) to Microsoft.

Press release 'The contract with Microsoft is one of the most advantageous contracts sealed in the country' (14.06.2002)
http://www.government.bg/English/Priorities/Administration/2002-06-14/...

A copy of the draft law is available through Veni Markovski - veni at veni.com.