ou can find the license information for open source software by looking at the source code. Different views, or reports, of that license information can be generated to address differing needs. While providing license information directly in the source code is not a requirement for open source software, the practical benefits of doing so became …
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Why so little love for the patent grant in the MIT License?
Too often, I hear it said that the MIT License has no patent license, or that it has merely some possibility of an “implied” patent license. If the MIT License was sensitive, it might develop an inferiority complex in light of the constant praise heaped on its younger sibling, the Apache License, which conventional wisdom …
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How will the GDPR impact open source communities?
On May 25, 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation will go into effect. This new regulation by the European Union will impact how organizations need to protect personal data on a global scale. This could include open source projects, including communities. GDPR details The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was approved by the EU Parliament …
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What’s in a container image: Meeting the legal challenges
Container technology has, for many years, been transforming how workloads in data centers are managed and speeding the cycle of application development and deployment. In addition, container images are increasingly used as a distribution format, with container registries a mechanism for software distribution. Isn’t this just like packages distributed using package management tools? Not quite. …
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Most-read coverage in 2018: Legal issues and the open source community
In 2018, Opensource.com again tackled the intersection of open source and the law, with the most-read articles addressing topics from privacy to patents. One of the most impactful legal changes in 2018 was the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), so it’s not surprising that many readers were interested in how the new …
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CLA proliferation and the Island of Dr. Moreau
When I started my career as an open source attorney, a significant concern was the proliferation of new forms of open source licenses, each requiring time-consuming analysis. As my colleague Scott Peterson points out in his article, “Open source licenses are shared resources”: “Focusing on a small number of licenses has an upside. Experiences and …
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Governance without rules: How the potential for forking helps projects
The speed and agility of open source projects benefit from lightweight and flexible governance. Their ability to run with such efficient governance is supported by the potential for project forking. That potential provides a discipline that encourages participants to find ways forward in the face of unanticipated problems, changed agendas, or other sources of disagreement …
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Top 10 FOSS legal developments of 2018
In 2018, we saw a clear demonstration of the free and open source software (FOSS) business model’s importance when IBM moved to purchase Red Hat for $34 billion. The FOSS ecosystem also celebrated its durability last year, as the Open Source Initiative (OSI) celebrated the 20th anniversary of the open source movement. Meanwhile, old legal …
Standards and open source: Why are patents treated differently?
Development of standards specifications and development of open source software have much in common: both are mechanisms by which competitors can collaborate; both can facilitate interoperability; both can be used to facilitate the adoption of new technologies; both can be used to crystallize or harmonize mature technologies. A technology may use both standards and open …
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Why CLAs aren’t good for open source
Few legal topics in open source are as controversial as contributor license agreements (CLAs). Unless you count the special historical case of the Fedora Project Contributor Agreement (which I’ve always seen as an un-CLA), or, like Karl Fogel, you classify the DCO as a type of CLA, today Red Hat makes no use of CLAs …
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