Try buying a copy of Adobe Software[1], and then hosting the *.isos on your website. You paid for it, you should get to do it!
The short answer is, it costs more to buy 100% of the rights, and governments rarely do so.
[1] It'd have to be older Adobe Software, as modern Adobe Software is all monthly licenses, etc.
We are not talking about a single consumer. We are talking about the state itself. They will get the license they want if they believe it is needed.
They will also use more tax-payers money to do so. I agree that the code should be public, but I can see why that isn't the case.
of course. But this idea assumes that the contractors are selling the same software to multiple agents. Is that really the case?
Or are the agents already charging the maximum they could for the software, and yet, retain the rights themselves in the hopes of whiteboxing this software in the future for some other gov't agency?