Peru's parliament approves pro-open source bill

'Bill here. Get Steve on a flight to Lima'
By Gavin Clarke
29 September 2005

Legislators in Peru have approved a hotly contested bill sanctioning use of open source software by government and levelling the playing field for start-ups against Microsoft.

The Peruvian Congress has passed a bill that prohibits any public institution from buying systems that tie users into any particular type of software or that limits 'information autonomy'. Public institutions are also barred from having a pre-determined preference for either proprietary software or open-source software."