Open Source Software Law

✍ Scribed by Rod Dixon

• Publisher: Artech House
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 304
• Series: Artech House Telecommunications Library
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This unique and comprehensive resource provides you with a broad introduction to the area of software licensing in the information age. The book helps you to understand the basic philosophy and key issues of open source software development and offers expert guidance on how to draft an open source license. Drawing on the author’s legal and technical background, this invaluable reference explains the legal framework that has been developed to support the increasingly popular internet-based open source and free software community. Open Source Software Law and Policy explores the formal and legal aspects of two revolutionary views of software development and distribution: that software should be offered to users with open access to the source code and that end-users should be freely able to modify, copy or redistribute the software they have legally acquired. Moreover, the book examines an innovative legal response to the conflict between copyright law and digital technology, and includes an analysis of the legal regime that an increasing number of software developers have come to prefer when developing and distributing software online.

✦ Table of Contents

Open Source Software Law......Page 2
Dedication......Page 6
Table of Contents......Page 8
Preface......Page 12
Acknowledgements......Page 16
Open Source Means Free......Page 18
OSD......Page 26
Endnotes......Page 30
Appendix 1A: The Open Source Definition......Page 31
2 Free Software and the GNU GPL......Page 34
Licensing To Meet Philosophical Objectives......Page 37
Copyright and Copyleft......Page 39
Code Forking......Page 42
What is Free Software?......Page 43
What is Free About Free Software?......Page 44
Endnotes......Page 56
3 Drafting Open Source Licenses......Page 58
BSD Licenses......Page 60
BSD License Template......Page 62
Restricting Commercial Uses......Page 65
AFPL......Page 67
Use Restrictions and Commercial Organizations......Page 73
Artistic License......Page 74
Commercial Open Source Ventures......Page 78
Endnotes......Page 87
Copyright as Property......Page 90
Setting Criminal Penalities for Theft of Copyright......Page 91
The Impact of the Internet on Conceptions of Copyright......Page 92
Software and the Public Domain......Page 93
When Source Code Lacks Originality......Page 94
Endnote......Page 98
Electronic Transactions......Page 100
E-Sign......Page 107
UETA......Page 109
UCITA......Page 111
Warranties and “As Is” Licensing......Page 118
Limitations on Liability......Page 120
Choice of Law Provisions......Page 121
Endnotes......Page 122
Open Commercial Uses......Page 124
The Jabber Open Source License Template......Page 127
The Open Software License......Page 131
Documentation Licenses......Page 133
Endnotes......Page 135
Open Standards......Page 136
Public Policy......Page 138
Endnotes......Page 140
Selecting a License Template......Page 142
Software Licensing Law and Policy......Page 145
Open Source Benefits Are Free......Page 147
Using the Hyperlinked RTF Documents......Page 148
About the Author......Page 294
Index......Page 296