PANEL: Open Source and Free Software License Compliance And Users - FOSDEM 2021
Channel: Free Software Foundation Europe
Date: 2021-02-19

Compliance with Open Source and Free Software licenses remains a perennial topic of discussion among policy makers in our community. However, little attention is paid to the motivations why these licenses have specific requirements. Specifically, at least for copyleft licenses, the licenses seek to bestow specific rights and freedoms to the users who receive the software integrated into the devices they use. This panel, containing a group of industry experts, consultants, and license enforcement experts, discusses the challenges and importance of assuring downstream can actually utilize the compliance artifacts they receive with products as intended by the license.

Compliance with Open Source and Free Software licenses remains a perennial topic of discussion among policy makers in our community. However, little attention is paid to the motivations why these licenses have specific requirements. Specifically, at least for copyleft licenses, the licenses seek to bestow specific rights and freedoms to the users who receive the software integrated into the devices they use. This panel, containing a group of industry experts, consultants, and license enforcement experts, discusses the challenges and importance of assuring downstream can actually utilize the compliance artifacts they receive with products as intended by the license.