This is the opportunity to write a wish list

Posted Jan 8, 2026 12:26 UTC (Thu) by coriordan (guest, #7544)
In reply to: This is the opportunity to write a wish list by alx.manpages
Parent article: European Commission issues call for evidence on open source

> Do they ask $BIGCOMPANY how it spends license money when they pay them?

No. But maybe they should.

They should have criteria about what they get for their money when they buy licences, and those criteria include that they want to be able to audit and adapt the software to meet their needs. I.e. it should be free software.

My point is that poor procedures around the purchase of licences doesn't necessarily imply that they should stop being picky about how they allocate grant money.

Abstaining from these grant procedures won't make the grants fail. It'll just mean we get less money for free software.