Applied Copyleft
Advokat Martin von Haller GroenbaekPartner, Bender von Haller Dragsted
CBLOS, Flensburg, 12 June 2009
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QuestionsCopyleft 1.0.1
What is a derived work?
Combinations
Distribution
Escapes
Enforcement
Damages
Licenses
fredag den 12. juni 2009
PersonaliaIT-Lawyer, partner at Bender von Haller Dragsted
Co-founder of Forening for Dansk Internet Handel (FDIH), Open Source Leverandør Foreningen (OSL), Danish Chapter of Internet Society (ISOC DK), DK-Hostsmaster A/S and the like
Board member of several SME IT companies
Legal counsel to OSS developers and public institutions (even works with Microsoft!)
I am not a hacker, computer scientist BUT
“in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed is king”
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Full Disclosure
I make good money from advising on open source law
I want to promote my open source brand
I want you to pay money to me for legal services
I love open source!
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The ideology
You get the four freedoms
You shall preserve these freedoms
So when you (re)distribute, copyleft secures that the next persons gets the same freedoms
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FLOSS - some basics
Copyright based
Not public domain
Licenses vs. contracts
Free software vs. open source software
Dual licensing
Copyleft, “Viral” or Hereditary
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Copyleft - the basics
You don’t have to redistribute or distribute
(Exception: “written offer valid for any third party” in GPL, v. 2)
Comply or cease use, or call back distribution
Make combined program, including modifications and otherwise closed code available under GPL (or compatible licens)
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Derivative workA work based on one or more pre-existing works
Improvement, translation, correction
Not collective work
Modifications are copyrighted themselves
Very few court cases
GPL: Combinations
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CombinationCombination of code into a whole
NB: All combinations are permitted and “private” combinations have no restrictions
Mechanism of communication
exec, pipes, rpc, function calls within a shared address space, etc.
Semantics of the communication
Output not covered
(Exc: GPL program copies text into output)
Output of language interpreter
(Exc: “bindings” interpreter to program)
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Combination cont.CMS Templates
Exc: Javascript calls
Microsoft Visual C++ (or Visual Basic) DLLs
Plug-ins under a GPL program
dynamically linked plug-ins
fork and exec to invoke plug-ins
System library exception
Aggregate work is not combined work
Linking exception
LGPL allows linking to closed applications
Java archive files
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“Weak” copyleft
GPL and LGPL is “strong copyleft
“Weak” copyleft restricts modification to e.g. altering of files
Mozilla Public License
Eclipse Public license
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DistributionGPL v2: Distribution
GPL v3: Propagation and Conveyance
In soft- and hardware
ASP loophole og network exception
Affero Public License
Contractors on/off-site
Outsourcing
Mergers and Acquisitions
Let recipient download the GPL’ed code
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EscapesMake deal with licensor
Replace code
Work around
GPL v3, sec. 8
Termination notice
NDA: Developer can agree not to release changes at all
NDA: Developer can agree only to release changes to customer
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EnforcementThe GPL is enforceable!
Germany 2004: Netfilter/Iptables; 2006: D-Link
US 2007: BusyBox; 2008: Jacobsen vs. Katzer
SCO
Copyright holder
Licensee
GPL-VIOLATIONS.ORG
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Damages
Compensation under copyright
No penal damages or stipulated damages
Economic loss suffered by licensor
Rule of thumb: 2 x license fee
Injunction
Legal fees
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Licenses
“Version 2 of the GPL or any later version”
User: GPL v. 3 more permissive or restrictive
Developer: Free to choose for future versions of program
GPL compatibility
FLOSS Exception
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Thanks for the attention!
[email protected]@groenbaek.nethttp://www.bvhd.dk
http://suse.groenbaek.net/openlife
fredag den 12. juni 2009