I've been arguing for years that the Government should not own IP. I've never seen the point. All they need is a license to use (and in some cases edit) what's delivered to them, but the ownership should stay where it is most likely to be further enhanced and commercialised - in the development company. Handing over the IP effectively means a company cannot grow from one project to another, and the development team would have to have a lobotomy at the end of every job. Never made any sense to me.

 At last new SSC guidelines suggest the Government's default position should now be to leave ownership with the supplier, and seek only a license. (Of course there are other positions they can take, including the old status quo of owning the IP so as not to look like they have done a u-turn.) The full story was well covered in Computerworld recently.

Somebody, somewhere finally saw the light. Phew and hooray!