Free, Libre and Open Source

Sam Halliday

Scala Sphere 2016 - Click for YouTube Video

Introduction

About Me

  • ENSIME contributor
  • FSF Contributing Member
  • Was founder of IPR-heavy company

Licences

Software Licence

Legal instrument governing use and redistribution

Libre Software

  • run the program as you wish, for any purpose
  • study how the program works, and change it
  • redistribute copies
  • distribute copies of your modified versions to others

Open Source

  • can view the source code
  • no common rules for use / redistribution

Example: NASA Open Source

G. Each Contributor represents that its Modification is believed to be the Contributor’s original creation and does not violate any existing agreements, regulations, statutes or rules, and further that Contributor has sufficient rights to grant the rights conveyed by this Agreement.

  • study how the program works, and change it ❌
  • distribute copies of your modified versions to others ❌
  • Not a Libre Software Licence

Example: MIT

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 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.

Is it libre?

  • run the program as you wish, for any purpose ✔
  • study how the program works, and change it ✔
  • redistribute copies ✔
  • distribute copies of your modified versions to others ✔

But you can sublicence or receive a modified version:

  • run the program as you wish, for any purpose ❌
  • study how the program works, and change it ❌
  • redistribute copies ❌
  • distribute copies of your modified versions to others ❌
  • Libre Software can become Proprietary

Example: JSON

The Software shall be used for Good, not Evil.

  • run the program as you wish, for any purpose ❌
  • Douglas Crockford, PayPal, can sue you for “Evil”
  • Not a Libre Software Licence
  • FSF, IBM, Google, Redhat all agree
  • some companies consider it unenforceable
  • don’t try to be funny with your licence
  • don’t add restrictions (“no military use” was once popular)

Copyleft

Requires all modified and extended versions to be libre.

  • GPL (strong)
  • LGPL
  • MPL (weak)

©

Creator has exclusive rights for use and distribution

If you are the copyright owner, you can release the same software under multiple licences.

Asserting your ownership

// Copyright 2010 - 2016 Sam Halliday
// Licence: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html

Include the full licence in a LICENSE file.

Deutsches Urhebergesetz

  • cannot transfer status as a creator, nor complete rights
  • “exclusive licences” achieve effective copyright transfer

Contributor Licence Agreement (CLA)

  • Copyright owner grants a special licence to one entity
  • Be suspicious of projects where the CLA ≠ Licence
  • Be very careful that you are not taking on liabilities

Patents

Patent

Exclusive rights granted to an inventor in exchange for detailed public disclosure of an invention.

  • need a patent licence to run software that uses it
  • run the program as you wish, for any purpose ❌
  • GPL, LGPL, MPL, Apache include a patent licence
  • MIT, BSD do not include a patent clause
  • prefer Apache 2.0 to BSD or MIT

Trademarks

®™

Recognisable symbol or name which identifies products or services of a particular source.

  • Each Trademark comes with its own set of guidelines.
  • Be very careful when using Trademarks.

Examples™

Example: Apple

Example: Scala Logo

We are happy for people to use derivations of it for their open source projects and events. There’s no official policy, just an informal “go for it!” when anyone asks us.

– Heather Miller, EPFL

Thanks

And on that note…