Beyond the GPLOr, “MIT License All The Things”by Matt Ryan
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IANALTuesday, May 7, 13
Goals for Open Source licensing
Encourage use and contributionDiscourage abuse and stealing
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“To be copyrightable, a derivative work must be different enough from the original to be regarded as a ‘new work’ or must contain a substantial amount of new material.” (emphasis added)
Source: US Copyright Office: Circular 14
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Photocopy each page, bind it in a cover with
two white hands holding a pomegranate, and call
it “Twilight”
Write a story about something else besides mopey teenage girls and
vampires, for heavens sake
Retell the story in your own words but change
all the proper nouns
Create a new story where a girl falls in love
with a zombie, instead of a vampire
Create a story, about a non-vampire couple named Edward and
Bella, which makes many Twilight references
Create a story using the same basic plot, but
change almost all other story elements
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Copy all the Linux sources, post them to
your own github and call it “Cynux”
Write a completely original software
application from scratch
Copy all the Linux sources but rename
functions, files, variables, etc.
Add several new features to an existing open source application
Add a new feature to an original application by including open source
components
Add a new feature to an original application by executing open source
via the shell
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import sqlite
conn = sqlite.connection(‘address.db’)cursor = conn.cursor()
sql = ‘SELECT * FROM person p, addr a ‘ + \ ‘WHERE a.id=p.addr_id’
cursor.execute(sql)rows = cursor.fetchall()
for row in rows: print ‘First Name: %s’ % row[‘p.first’] print ‘Last Name: %s’ % row[‘p.last’] print ‘House #: %s’ % row[‘a.housenum’] print ‘Street: %s’ % row[‘a.street’] print ‘City: %s’ % row[‘a.city’] print ‘State: %s’ % row[‘a.state’] print ‘Zip: %s’ % row[‘a.zip’]
conn.close()
import sqlite
conn = sqlite.connection(‘contact.db’)cursor = conn.cursor()
sql = ‘SELECT * FROM person p, info i ‘ + \ ‘WHERE i.id=p.info_id’
cursor.execute(sql)rows = cursor.fetchall()
for row in rows: print ‘First Name: %s’ % row[‘p.first’] print ‘Last Name: %s’ % row[‘p.last’] print ‘Email: %s’ % row[‘i.email’] print ‘Homepage: %s’ % row[‘i.homepage’] print ‘Twitter: %s’ % row[‘i.twitter’] print ‘Skype: %s’ % row[‘i.skype’] print ‘Cell: %s’ % row[‘i.cell’]
conn.close()
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Software companies are scared to death of copyleft licenses – even
software companies that use and are involved in open source.
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Proprietary Copyleft Non-Copyleft
More Restrictive More Free
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Freedom – For Whom?Copyleft Licenses:
• Restrict freedom of users of the original content
• Preserve freedom of creators of the original content
Non-Copyleft Licenses:
• Preserve freedom of users of the original content
• Restrict freedom of creators of the original content
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Why do we use and contribute to open source software?
We believe in the strength of community
Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow
Broad participation creates better software
Don’t want to maintain our own patches
Focus on creating more value
Karma
Because the license forces us to???
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Copyleft – Essential for the sucess of open source in the 1990s
Today – Is it still necessary?
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Reasons to stick with a copyleft license
You want to legally require fair participation
Example: A joint open-source venture between software companies
You are participating on projects that are already copyleft
You are old school
You are lazy and don’t want to do your homework
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Reasons to consider a non-copyleft license
Encourage participation by software companies
Broader adoption means larger community
Larger community means stronger code
People who get open source will give back anyway
A license won’t force people to give back if they wouldn’t otherwise
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Matt Ryan@mattvryan
http://www.mvryan.orghttps://github.com/mattvryan
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Licensing
Slide 6 - “Twilight” Book Cover: Source: John Lambert Pearson, License: CC BY 2.0
“Twilight” © 2005 by Stephanie Meyer
Slide 7 - Mona Lisa L.H.O.O.Q: Public Domain
Slide 10 - Cheating Student: Source
Slide 11 - Brains and Gears: Source: Jean-Remy Duboc, License: CC BY 2.0
Slide 12 - Astronomical Clock: Source: Anthony Dodd, License: CC BY-NC 3.0
Slide 13 - Copyleft Symbol: Public Domain
All other content: Created by Matt Ryan CC BY-SA 3.0
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