“The memo will also confirm that it is acceptable for an agency to contribute source code back into a public open source project. It is acceptable, Risacher qualified, assuming the agency has the rights to the code, that releasing the code is in the government’s interest and that sharing the code does not violate any other government restrictions, such as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). Risacher also cautioned that government employees may not copyright any work that they do, so any contributions will be in the public domain.”

Taken from:

This great article

Now, all we need is an nice “incentive” for contractors to produce OSS. Hello, Mr. CIO. Might I suggest some leverage…