Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
Spring 2008
Software Licensing
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ICS269: Computer
IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Law
Spring 2008
Spring 2008
Overview
History of software and licenses
Categories of licenses
Software Foundations
Popular licenses
Comparison of licenses
Working around licenses
History of Unix
Case Study: SCO vs. Linux
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Spring 2008
History of software
•Until early 1970’s
•MIT
•SHARE – IBM
•DECUS – DEC
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Spring 2008
•In the late 1970s and early 1980s, companies began routinely imposing
restrictions on programmers through copyright.
•Motivated by financial gains by selling rights of use rather than giving the code.
•Bill Gates signaled the change of the times in 1976 when he wrote his now-
famous Open Letter to Hobbyists.
•Wrote Altair BASIC for MITS.
•dismayed at the rampant copyright infringement taking place in the
hobbyist community
•Signaled that there was little incentive in making software available for free.
”Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? “
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Spring 2008
•GNU Project was established in 1983 to write a complete operating system free
from constraints on use of its source code.
•disagreement between Stallman and Symbolics, Inc. over Stallman's
access to changes Symbolics had made to a program he wrote.
•Successful projects
•GNU Debugger
•GNU Emacs
•GNU Complier Collection
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Spring 2008
•OS/2 in 1985
•Windows in 1986
•IPO in 1987
•Office in 1989
•Novell accused Microsoft of using inside information about it’s systems to make
Office suite better than Word Perfect.
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Spring 2008
•386BSD 1993
•In California Bill Jolitz @ UC Berkeley
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Spring 2008
•Netscape
•Netscape Communicator released it’s codebase under NPL.
•Internet Revolution
•Apache HTTP Server
•PHP
•MySQL
•LAMP systems
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Spring 2008
Current Trends
•Strike a balance between
•commercial interests
•IP issues
•collaboration in development
•reference code
•Open standards
•Open Social
•Open Handset Alliance
•Novell-Microsoft Interoperability
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Spring 2008
In brief
Proprietary Open
•Pros •Greater commercial value •Ability to modify code
•Leads to more funds for research •Ability to re-distribute
•Better support •No vendor lock
•Democracy!
•Cheaper?
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Spring 2008
Categories of software
•Free software
•anyone to use, copy, and distribute, either verbatim or with
modifications, either gratis or for a fee.
•Free software is a matter of freedom, not price.
•Open source
•More or less same as Free software
•They may accept some more restrictive licenses
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Spring 2008
Categories of licenses(cont.)
•Non free software
•SemiFree software
•permission for individuals to use, copy, distribute, and modify
(including distribution of modified versions) for non-profit purposes
•Proprietory software
•use, redistribution or modification is prohibited, or requires you to
ask for permission, or is restricted so much that you effectively can't
do it freely
•Freeware
•commonly used for packages which permit redistribution but not
modification (and their source code is not available)
•Shareware
•software which comes with permission for people to redistribute
copies, but says that anyone who continues to use a copy is required
to pay a license fee
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Spring 2008
Categories of licenses(cont.)
•Private software
•custom software is software developed for one user (typically an
organization or company).
•Commercial software
•developed by a business which aims to make money from the use of the
software
•Can be open source software eg some software from RedHat, Novell or
IBM
•Can be proprietary software e.g Microsoft
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Spring 2008
Software Foundations
•Free Software Foundation
•Led by Richard Stallman
•Principle sponsor of GNU project
•Goal: to advance software freedom
•Sister organizations in Europe, Latin America, India
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Spring 2008
•Licenses Available
•GNU GPL
•Strong copyleft
•GNU LGPL
•No copy left on linking libraries
•GNU AGPL
•Covers scenario of software run over a network
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Spring 2008
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Spring 2008
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Spring 2008
License CRITERIA
2. Free Redistribution
3. Source Code
4. Derived Works
5. Integrity of The Author's Source Code
6. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
7. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
8. Distribution of License
9. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product
10. License Must Not Restrict Other Software
11. License Must Be Technology-Neutral
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Spring 2008
19
ICS269: Computer
IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Law
Spring 2008
Spring 2008
Overview
History of software and licenses
Categories of licenses
Software Foundations
Popular licenses
Comparison of licenses
Working around licenses
History of Unix
Case Study: SCO vs. Linux
20
ICS269: Computer
IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Law
Spring 2008
Spring 2008
Overview
X11/MIT
BSD
Restrictive Permissive
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ICS269: Computer
IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Law
Spring 2008
Spring 2008
Copyleft
Copyright vs Copyleft
Against software hoarding
Strong vs Weak Copyleft
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ICS269: Computer
IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Law
Spring 2008
Spring 2008
GNU GPL
(General Public License)
Current versions: GPLv2,
GPLv3
Major products licensed
under GNU GPL:
Linux kernel
Almost all GNU projects
excluding libraries
Java 6, Qt, KDE, MySQL,
Inkscape, …
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ICS269: Computer
IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Law
Spring 2008
Spring 2008
GNU LGPL
(Lesser General Public License)
Current versions: LGPLv2,
LGPLv3
Major products licensed
under GNU LGPL:
GNU libraries, such as
libgcc, libstdc++, etc
OpenOffice, JBoss
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ICS269: Computer
IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Law
Spring 2008
Spring 2008
MPL
(Mozilla Public License)
Current version: 1.1
Major products licensed
under MPL:
Mozilla Foundation products
OpenSolaris, Adobe Flex,
Erlang
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ICS269: Computer
IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Law
Spring 2008
Spring 2008
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ICS269: Computer
IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Law
Spring 2008
Spring 2008
BSD Licenses
including MIT/X11
Very short and simple
Not a single license, but
class of licenses
Major products licensed
under BSD-like licenses:
All flavors of BSD operating
systems
X Windows System (X11)
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ICS269: Computer
IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Law
Spring 2008
Spring 2008
28
ICS269: Computer
IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Law
Spring 2008
Spring 2008
GPL Compatibility
What does it mean?
Why is it important?
65% 89%
LGPL
9%
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ICS269: Computer
IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Law
Spring 2008
Spring 2008
Other criterias
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ICS269: Computer
IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Law
Spring 2008
Spring 2008
Comparison matrix
3-clause
GPL LGPL MPL Apache
BSD, MIT
GPL- Compatible
compatible with GPLv3
only
Proprietary
Software
linking
Redistributing Only Only under Only
of the code
with changes
under
GPL
GPL or
LPGL
under
MPL
Distribution
of “the Work”
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ICS269: Computer
IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Law
Spring 2008
Spring 2008
Tricking GPL
GPL GPL
Static Linking
libjpeg My software
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ICS269: Computer
IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Law
Spring 2008
Spring 2008
Overview
History of software and licenses
Categories of licenses
Software Foundations
Popular licenses
Comparison of licenses
Working around licenses
History of Unix
Case Study: SCO vs. Linux
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Winter 2008
History of UNIX
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Winter 2008
History of UNIX
Major movements to build a free source UNIX
(1990s)
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Winter 2008
History of UNIX
Who owns UNIX IP?
Sells To Sells To
1993 1995
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Winter 2008
37
IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Winter 2008
- Owns UNIX IP (bought from Novell) - Has license agreement with AT&T for UNIX
- Most earnings from UNIX products - Has “derivative” UNIX work, AIX
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Winter 2008
May 2003
SCO: Claims Linux kernel contains SCO code (without saying exactly
where)
Claims Linux is unauthorized derivative of UNIX
Sends angry letters to about 1500 companies
Plans on suing SuSe, RedHat and Novell (and others)
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Winter 2008
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Winter 2008
41
IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Winter 2008
Discussion goes back and forth whether SCO owns UNIX copyright
SCO has still not brought enough evidence….
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Winter 2008
Novell enters
game, doubting SCO Stock Price Development From 2003 - 2008
SCO’s ownership
of UNIX IBM files
20 counterclaims,
Stock Price stating it violated
18 GPL and IBM’s
copyright
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Stock Price
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Winter 2008
SCO: Rest:
- Linux is derivative of UNIX - UNIX IP does not entirely belong to SCO
- GPL is invalid - Code was released under GPL
- Linux contains SCO code - Linux and SCO’s common code come from third
source which is in public domain
- SCO’s code was stolen from Linux
Basically a battle of money. In the end SCO was not able to scare the world into turning
their backs on Linux or buying SCO’s Linux license. SCO ran out of money.
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ICS269: Computer
IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Law
Spring 2008
Spring 2008
Disclaimer
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IN4MATX269: Computer Law
Spring 2008
References
•http://www.gnu.org
•http://www.opensource.org/
•http://www.fsf.org/
•http://www.wikipedia.org
•http://www.microsoft.com/resources/sharedsource/default.mspx
•http://static.userland.com/userLandDiscussArchive/msg019844.html
•http://developer.kde.org/documentation/licensing/licenses_summary.html
•http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/gpl-compatible.html
•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source_license
•http://www.news.com/2100-1016-991464.html
•http://www.albion.com/security/intro-2.html
•http://www.linux.org/news/sco/timeline.html
•http://www.cyber.com.au/users/conz/linux_vs_sco_matrix.html
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