Open Source Licensing

Introduction to concepts of copyright, copyleft. Use GPL as an example of copyleft license. Encourage adoption of MIT license for software and Creative Common for other creative works.

Transcript

1. Open Source Licensing Leong Hean Hong hong@mrleong.net (CC) BY
2. Have you ever published a ... • source code • blog • photo • flim • song • drawing
3. Considerations • Allow others to use your work? • Allow commercial use? • Allow reproduction (with modification), redistribution of work? • Need to give you credit? • ...
4. What is a software license? A software license is a legally binding agreement that specifies the terms of use for an application and defines the rights of the software producer and of the end-user. Source: http://its.uncg.edu/Software/Licensing/
5. Copyright ©
6. • No registration, automatically protected* • Transferable • Last for 50 years* Source: http://www.myipo.gov.my/web/guest/hakcipta Malaysia Copyright Act 1987
7. Copyleft
8. Copyleft Copyleft is the practice of offering people the right to freely distribute copies and modified versions of a work with the stipulation that the same rights be preserved in derivative works down the line. NOT all open source licenses comply with copyleft.
9. GPL (General Public License) • Version 1 - 25th February 1989 • Version 2 - “Liberty or Death”. E.g. Linux Kernel • Version 3 - “Tivolization”, “DRM”. E.g. GIMP, Bash Reference: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/licenses.html
10. Creative Common Retain copyright, while allowing others to copy, distribute, and some use of your work
11. https://creativecommons.org/choose/
12. MIT License Do whatever you want, no liability, must include original license notice
13. MIT License MIT License Copyright (c) [year] [fullname] Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
14. Other Popular Licenses • Apache License • Mozilla Public License • “Lesser” General Public License (LGPL) Reference: https://opensource.org/licenses/alphabetical
15. Need help? choosealicense.com