- Author:
- Lawrence Rosen
“I have studied Rosen's book in detail and am impressed with its scope and content. I strongly recommend it to anybody interested in the current controversies surrounding open source licensing.” -John Terpstra, Samba.org; cofounder, Samba-Team “Linux and open source software have forever altered the computing landscape. The important conversations no longer revolve around the technology but rather the business and legal issues. Rosen's book is must reading for anyone using or providing open source solutions.” -Stuart Open Source Development LabsA Complete Guide to the Law of Open Source for Developers, Managers, and LawyersNow that open source software is blossoming around the world, it is crucial to understand how open source licenses work-and their solid legal foundations. Open Source Initiative general counsel Lawrence Rosen presents a plain-English guide to open source law for developers, managers, users, and lawyers. Rosen clearly explains the intellectual property laws that support open source licensing, carefully reviews today's leading licenses, and helps you make the best choices for your project or organization. Coverage includes: Explanation of why the SCO litigation and other attacks won't derail open source Dispelling the myths of open source licensing Intellectual property law for nonlawyers: ownership and licensing of copyrights, patents, and trademarks “Academic licenses”: BSD, MIT, Apache, and beyond The “reciprocal bargain” at the heart of the GPL Alternative licenses: Mozilla, CPL, OSL and AFL Benefits of open source, and the obligations and risks facing businesses that deploy open source software Choosing the right license: considering business models, product architecture, IP ownership, license compatibility issues, relicensing, and more Enforcing the terms and conditions of open source licenses Shared source, eventual source, and other alternative models to open source Protecting yourself against lawsuits
Cited By
Duan M, Li Q and He B ModelGo: A Practical Tool for Machine Learning License Analysis Proceedings of the ACM on Web Conference 2024, (1158-1169)- Anejionu O, Thakuriah P, McHugh A, Sun Y, McArthur D, Mason P and Walpole R (2022). Spatial urban data system, Future Generation Computer Systems, 98:C, (456-473), Online publication date: 1-Sep-2019.
- Meloca R, Pinto G, Baiser L, Mattos M, Polato I, Wiese I and German D Understanding the usage, impact, and adoption of non-OSI approved licenses Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories, (270-280)
- Kapitsaki G, Kramer F and Tselikas N (2017). Automating the license compatibility process in open source software with SPDX, Journal of Systems and Software, 131:C, (386-401), Online publication date: 1-Sep-2017.
- Huang X, Ding X, Lee C, Lu T and Gu N Meanings and boundaries of scientific software sharing Proceedings of the 2013 conference on Computer supported cooperative work, (423-434)
- Sojer M and Henkel J (2011). License risks from ad hoc reuse of code from the internet, Communications of the ACM, 54:12, (74-81), Online publication date: 1-Dec-2011.
- Santos C, Cavalca M, Kon F, Singer J, Ritter V, Regina D and Tsujimoto T Intellectual property policy and attractiveness Proceedings of the ACM 2011 conference on Computer supported cooperative work, (705-708)
- German D, Webber J and Di Penta M Lawful software engineering Proceedings of the FSE/SDP workshop on Future of software engineering research, (129-132)
- German D, Manabe Y and Inoue K A sentence-matching method for automatic license identification of source code files Proceedings of the 25th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, (437-446)
- Di Penta M, German D, Guéhéneuc Y and Antoniol G An exploratory study of the evolution of software licensing Proceedings of the 32nd ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering - Volume 1, (145-154)
- Reis A and Fabris R What about the IP of your IP? Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Symposium on Integrated Circuits and System Design: Chip on the Dunes, (1-3)
- Alspaugh T, Asuncion H and Scacchi W Analyzing software licenses in open architecture software systems Proceedings of the 2009 ICSE Workshop on Emerging Trends in Free/Libre/Open Source Software Research and Development, (54-57)
- German D and Hassan A License integration patterns Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on Software Engineering, (188-198)
- Muller-Seitz G (2009). The open source software phenomenon as a role model for networked innovations in biotechnology: an exploratory study, International Journal of Web Based Communities, 5:2, (212-237), Online publication date: 1-Mar-2009.
- Subramaniam C, Sen R and Nelson M (2009). Determinants of open source software project success, Decision Support Systems, 46:2, (576-585), Online publication date: 1-Jan-2009.
- Dang Y, Cheng P, Luo L and Cho A A code provenance management tool for ip-aware software development Companion of the 30th international conference on Software engineering, (975-976)
- German D Using Software Distributions to Understand the Relationship among Free and Open Source Software Projects Proceedings of the Fourth International Workshop on Mining Software Repositories
Index Terms
- Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law
Recommendations
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Reviews
Brad D. Reid
Readers might wonder why a book about open source resources is necessary. This book arises in the context of the GNU/Linux project, and "builds a framework within which the family of free and open source licenses can be understood." The author is general counsel for the Open Source Initiative, and this book contains a number of model documents that will be valuable to anyone engaged in open source projects. It would be nice if the forms were available on a CD, but otherwise, the book is well written. It is written in language that is easy for a non-attorney to understand, with clear explanations. Clearly, an ounce of prevention is very worthwhile; the author states that "for major battles between big companies, attorney's fees of more than $300,000 per month are now commonplace in the United States." This book will help prevent problems, with chapters covering: freedom and open source; intellectual property; distribution of software; taxonomy of licenses; academic licenses; reciprocity; the Mozilla public license; the common public license; the open software license (OSL) and the academic free license (AFL); choosing an open source license; shared source, eventual source, and other licensing models; open source litigation; and open standards. One interesting aspect of this book is the absence of case and statutory legal citations. This is good if the reader perceives that material as unnecessary clutter, and bad if the reader is searching for this type of legal authority. Nevertheless, at almost 300 pages, and with a detailed index, I recommend this book to professionals seeking guidance in this complex and developing area of intellectual property law. Online Computing Reviews Service
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