Comment by spauldo
1 day ago
I guess I should have been clearer - the "private repository" mentioned in that bill only has to be available for government employees, and even then only on request. Public repositories are an option, but the government doesn't have to choose that option. The main point is to encourage reuse within the government, not to be a source of free public domain software for the public.
Almost everything the government makes IS public domain, including the software.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_works_by_t...
Just because it's public domain doesn't mean they are obliged to make it available to the public. As noted above, they do have to make it available to other government agencies, but it's the government's choice to place it in a public repository. All public domain means is that if you happen to acquire a copy of it, you can do whatever you like with it.