open source licenses

Karol Bronke – Copyright & Open Source Licenses

Copyright&

Open Source Licenses

2

Stuttgart Media University

Course„Property rights and patents “

Presentation byKarol Bronke

Master„Computer Science and Media“


3

IANAL

I am not a lawyer !This is no legal advice !

Disclaimer


4

CopyrightGerman definitionComputer programmsUtilization rightsInternational topics

Law of contractLaw of licenseOpen Source Licenses

GPLApache LicenseBSDMIT, MPL, other

Legal obligation


Agenda

5

Copyright


• Protects ‚personal intellectual creation‘• Literary work, poems, music, movies, academic

drawings,… and computer programs• No trivial content• No formal deed needed• Protects the relationship between author and his

work • Protects the usage of his work

6

Copyright


• A protected work can basically only be used by his author

• BUT he can grant usage rights to other people, possibly by charging money

• Basic usage right granted for– Information and educational usage – Private copy– …

7

Copyright


Problem: What is a distribution via download on a server?

substantially

• multiply, disseminate, rent on medium

insubstantially

• Public presentation, broadcast without a medium

Public availability

• Distribution via download from a server

Utilization rights

8

Copyright on computer programs


• Explicitly literal work ( protectable)• Special paragraph for computer programms that are

executable• Digital music, pictures etc. are not protectable• Computer programms created in employment

contracts Utilization right belongs to employer

9

Utilization rights


temporal spatial type

charge money once or periodically

10

International


• Territorial principle• ‚writ of law‘• ‚Berne Convention for the Protection of

Literary and Artistic Works‘• Protection of foreign work

11

Law of contract


• Normal contract between author and objector is possible

general terms and conditions

• Still copyright on the work itself

12

Law of license


• Mostly about regulation of the authors duties to allow usage of his work

• EULA – End User License Agreement – are provided by the author

• Core of licence contract in case of doubt for the author in minimal scope

• General terms and conditions in case of doubt against the author

13

License, EULA, AGB


• Distribution rights

License

• Usage restrictions

EULA

• About the contracts conditions and requirments

General terms and conditions

14

Open Source Licenses


Problem: German law– You cannot quit from your copyright

Solution: open source license statements– allowance to use/distribute by concomitantly– impose duties

15

General Public License


• Most common open source license (50-70%)• Mostly accepted by German law– But few critical cases known

• Current version 3.0, but 2.0 still used• Diverse possible variations– LGPL (for libraries)– GFDL (for documentations)– …

16



• You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the program

• You are allowed to change the program and distribute the changed version

• You are not allowed to change the licenses text• You have a couple of duties …

17



• Basic duty: With every Copy you have to distribute a license

• Copyleft: After changing the programm you have to quit from the same rights– Questions for companies:• Which kind of change hits the copyleft?• Does merging two software parts hit the copyleft?

18

Apache License


• You are allowed to freely use, distribute and modify software under this license

• If you distribute, you have to name the author and include the license text

• Modifications have to be marked noticeably, but you do not have to inform the author

• You software cannot be called –apache-• Compatible to GPL 3• Current version is 2.0

19

Apache License


20

Berkeley Software Distribution


• You are allowed to freely use, distribute and modify the software under this license

• You are not allowed to delete the original copyright• Difference: NO COPYLEFT

– If you change a BSD programm you can do whatever you want with it– The new software doesn‘t have to be again under BSD– The source code must not be published

• Examples are– FreeBSD (OS)– Mac OS X, …

21

MIT License


• Massachusetts Institute of Technology License• Other names: X-License or X11 License• Allows usage of MIT software either the code is freely

accesible or not• License text is changable• Examples

– OS Haiku– Ruby on Rails– X Window System (X11)– …

22

Mozilla Public License


• Main goal licensing browser and tools• Copied or modified code has to be under MPL again• Combinations of MPL code with ‚no-open-source‘ code

possible– Depending on the attachment of the components

• Very weak copyleft license• Between GPL and BSD• Examples

– OpenSolaris (Sun)– AOL Server, …

23

Other licenses


• Common Development and Distribution License CDDL

• Eclipse Public License EPL

• Educational Community License ESL

• NASA open source Agreement NASA

• Qt Public license

• …

24

Compatibility


• Not all licenses are compatible to each other• Main difference between GPL and GPL related

licenses and other open source licenses• GPL forces more or less code to be open• If you combine code, the new code has to be

under GPL too could lead to more & better software

• Holy war for year inside of open spurce community

25

Legal obligation


• Many different cases

• Mostly obligatory under law of license and law of contract

• Usage is excluded from licenses• If you just use it, you don‘t have to cope with licenses• If you distribute, copy or change it, you have to

• English license text is not a reason not to follow the licenses condition

26

Contact:Karol [email protected]

Thank you!


27

• www.fsf.org

• www.gnu.org

• http://www.opensourcejahrbuch.de/Archiv/2005/2005/abstracts/2004/pdfs/IV-

3-KoglinMetzger.pdf

• http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html

• Creativecommons.org

• www.bpb.de

• http://www.heise.de/open/artikel/Open-Source-Lizenzen-221957.html

• Freie-software.bpb.de

• www.opensource.org/licenses/

Source materials

open source licenses

Business

general public

org www

source code

german law

software

license

licenses

open