Procure software on its merits, not through categorical preferences

All software products offer varying benefits and costs. Public entities should procure the software that best meets their needs and should avoid any categorical preferences for open source software, commercial software, free software, or other software development models. Governments are best served when they can select software from a broad range of products based on such considerations as value, total cost of ownership, feature set, performance and security. Governments should let the marketplace continue to encourage innovation in software development and should avoid intervening through preferences or procurement requirements that would discriminate in favour of one model over another.

• Procure software on its merits, not through categorical preferences
• Promote broad availability of government funded research
• Promote interoperability through platform-neutral standards
• Maintain a choice of strong intellectual property protections